What happened to you today that let you know Maine is "Home" (Portland: real estate, houses) - (ME) - Page 3 - City-Data Forum

msina · 12-07-2007, 08:00 PM

I think we need someone to write one of those sappy (which I love) books about all these friends that conected and came together in a little hometown area. Common Simplicity. Maybe like a Debbie Macomber type? Good money in sequels.

jenkaye · 12-07-2007, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

'Today'?

Maine is great, but I got off on a bad footing today.

We had this cute little buck that KAF gave us, he has been full of life and energy all fall.

He was a runt, born in late spring and just never managed to catch up in size. He had skin problems and was not prospering at KAF's.

I would bring him in each day so that he could eat some grain separately without the herd knocking him away. They ram and beat each other up whenever one of the goats is not aggressive.

With some daily grain he had energy and was playful, he ran in the forest and ate lots of grass and bark, his belly became so big everyday that if anything he had issues jumping and playing as his belly was often too full. In our entire herd his voice has been the loudest. KAF expected that we would slaughter him and have a BBQ. But once his skin cleared up and he began putting on weight, I just kept putting it off.

I have not fed him separately for at least a month now. He has been able to stand up for himself and get his mouthful of grain while the herd is feeding together each day.

Yesterday I saw the other goats had knocked him down in a snow bank and he had a hard time standing up again. He had no cough, his nose was not runny, he was loud calling to me and seemed to just need help standing back up once his feet had sunk into the deep snow. I was planning on bringing him inside this morning and feeding him grain separately.

When I let the herd out this morning, he was missing. I found him, laying in the goat's shed, he died last night.

That made me so sad but I guess that's life on a farm. You were so sweet to take him in and give him a chance.

Submariner · 12-07-2007, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sjlcu

I'll post here because it seems right. The thread title of "What happened to you today that let you know Maine is "Home" couldn't feel more appropriate for what I am about to say, and I ask you to bear with me, please. This is the most difficult day of the year for me. Today is the "sad"versisary of my husband's death 4 years ago tonight. ...

You are in my prayers tonight.

When you do get to Maine, give me a ring, and we will feed you dinner.

mollysmiles · 12-07-2007, 08:22 PM

Forest, I'm sorry to hear what happened. I feel bad to think of what might have happened to him. I also realize though, that even though you have had the life and career you've had, you're still touched by this. Reason tells you that maybe you shouldn't be, but you still are, and that to me is very touching.

Stacie my heart goes out to you. Be good to yourself

Maine Writer · 12-07-2007, 08:30 PM

Stacie, I'm glad you found us. We do care.

And Forest, I'm sorry about the kid. Your animals are blessed to be taken care of by someone who cares about them.

Eastport4me · 12-07-2007, 08:31 PM

sjlcu I am sorry for your loss...I too have walked the path of the death of a husband...I was Vietnam widow. I send you love and support and prayers for healing during your grief and loneliness.

Forest I am also sorry for the loss of your goat. I was raised on a farm from age 5 to 16 and experienced the loss of my kitty cat and a pet duck. We had goats on the farm because my grandfather loved goats milk.

Maine Writer · 12-07-2007, 08:32 PM

Today - the first game of the basketball season. We breath basketball in Washington county. DD's first high school game is tomorrow in Machias. We'll do a lot of driving for the next 2 1/2 months.

starwalker · 12-07-2007, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by msina

I think we need someone to write one of those sappy (which I love) books about all these friends that conected and came together in a little hometown area. Common Simplicity. Maybe like a Debbie Macomber type? Good money in sequels.

beacha to it... I am writing right now.. with massive plagirizing from the board... a poor relation to Garrison Keeler but what I have been reading is causing me to want to write the tales of the North Woods a la Lake Woebegone...

starwalker · 12-07-2007, 08:40 PM

Winter has come to the North Woods. It is early this year, or at least earlier than it has been of late. When I was a young lass, it seems, snow started to fall on Thanksgiving or thereabouts. Sometimes just a skift, dusting the unraked leaves like powdered sugar on a cake.. and sometimes more. We’d grab our sleds and wax up the runners and wait, and watch for the hill to be ready. And while we waited, we’d sit indoors and thumb through the Wish Books that arrived with the first snowfall, harbingers of an even more important season.

I was thinking about Christmas today, driving home from work. Thinking about how hard it is to buy gifts for kids today. They want this-boxes or those-pods and these games work with that but not with this…who can understand it all? And then, as I came over the hill, I heard a sound, and then, saw the source. The little boy across the street (about 6 or 7), who had just got his first snowmobile was still out riding around on his toy. He only has about a 1/2 acre to go around on and he goes round and round. It was very cold, but you could hear him laughing and the light of his tiny snow mobile casting shadows on the snow. It was magical to see a child having so much fun in the snow that he did not care if his feet were cold or if he was late for dinner. He had snow to plow through, and seeing him took me back to the cold feet and late dinners brought on by the appearance of “enough” snow on the hill.

Here in the North Woods, though, tragedy is never far from our minds or our lives. The joy of youthful exuberance is often tempered by other news. My other neighbor, Forest, lost a goat today. It was not a strong one, but a runt that he had taken on from another neighbor. He was a runt, born in late spring and just never managed to catch up in size. He had skin problems and Forest would bring him in each day so that he could eat some grain separately without the herd knocking him away. His original owner had expected that Forest would slaughter him and have a BBQ, but once his skin cleared up and he began putting on weight, they just kept putting it off. When I ran into Forest at the VFW last week, he mentioned that he not fed him separately for at least a month now, ‘cause the little goat had been able to stand up for himself and get his mouthful of grain while the herd is feeding together each day.

Yesterday, though, my wife heard the news that the other goats had knocked him down in a snow bank and he had a hard time standing up again. He did not seem to be sick, just to just need help standing back up once his feet had sunk into the deep snow. But when Forest let the herd out this morning, he was missing. They found him, lying in the goat's shed, where he had died overnight.

And even though as herdsmen we do want these goats to be strong and healthy, so in that theory any weak runts or slightly disabled ones should be culled, it’s a totally different thing to find one dead like that and all the neighbors have been expressing their sorrow to Forest and his wife when they met running errands in town today.

And yet another neighbor is feeling the passing of her husband 4 years ago with sadness and longing and with a sense of loving melancholy, she still connects to the community as she learned of the goat’s death, read another friend’s family journal and is enveloped in hugs and plied with chocolate and shared tears by the neighbor women. The “Ya-Ya’s they call themselves.. a southern term or so I thought, but it has transplanted well to these North Woods in the community of friends.

But for now, my fire is burning low and my nose is cold. Time to take to the covers and thanks the Gods for the dogs and cats… and for the good friends and good stories from the North Woods.

--------
Don't shoot me... it's late, I'm tired and this is NOT the sort of stuff I normally write.. but a certain muse by the name of Saga wouldn't get off my case until I pecked a bit on this confounded keyboard.

Eastport4me · 12-07-2007, 08:44 PM

1st -Today we received the first Christmas card of the season not from family or relative but from a person in Eastport, Maine whom we have yet to meet.

2nd - Logging on to read about the ya ya's and feeling the "love" and caring that is shared and the bonding that is going on without having met face to face.