and it is almost all my fault.

I did the animal chores yesterday so Tom could go trout fishing with his kid.  I thought I did everything right and thought I had reviewed in my mind that all the chores were done before I left the barn yard.  I then did some minor gardening but exhausted myself and spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch.

Tom brought home 5 trout.  I manged to cook Trout with Chive Butter for dinner.  It wasn’t that good so I was sad that I had wasted all of Tom’s good work.

This morning Tom was washing eggs for sale and bottles so I started the chores first.  I have some energy in the mornings so like to get going before it runs out.  When I went to the barn I immediately noticed that the barn door between the goat side of the barn and the alleyway was busted.  I quickly figured out that I must have forgotten to let the goats out the morning before, and they had busted the door (rather violently) to get out to the food and water.  I went around to the other side and sure enough I had also forgotten to put Olivia back with Marty which is the step I should have done before letting the goats out.  We feed Olivia in the alleyway with the goats in the barn so she can eat without interference.  So I went to tell Tom the news.  He was upset and said that I was creating more work for him.  That made me really sad as I had been trying to make less work for him by doing the chores but obviously I failed.  My brain doesn’t work well with this illness (which is one of the reasons I am not working).  Here is what the door looked like from the outside after the goats’ damage.

I went back to do the chores.  I noticed that a couple of the smaller goats had escaped through the fence into the field with the sheep.  There is a small hole in the fence that they have been using.  I had tried to block it with a piece of rock but obviously that did not work.

Then I noticed something in the field that the goats had escaped into.

Initially I thought it might be one of my older sheep, but on investigation it was Miss Smith and she was dead.  She was quite bloated and on her side.  So I immediately felt horrible.  I had noticed she was bloated last month.  But she had been eating and acting normally.  Her condition and conjunctival color stayed normal.  I had wormed her twice.  But I probably should have checked her stool for ova and parasites.  If that was negative I should have called the vet to look at her.  But now she’s dead and probably died a horrible death.

Tom fixed the door.

And he fixed the hole in the fence.

You can see the escaped goats and Miss Smith in the field they are not supposed to be in.  I had moved the sheep to rotate them.  Tom moved the two escaped goats back and then buried Miss Smith.

So here are my favorite photos of Miss Smith.

Miss Smith just after birth in March 2010, born to Patches Pal and Cody

She was named after Miss Smith of Miss Smith’s Delivery Service.

Miss Smith September 2010

With her mother Patches Pal, September 2010

We still have Patches, who is 15 years old.

Miss Smith with Tom. December 2010

Miss Smith and Zeus, April 2011

Miss Smith in hay feeder, December 2011

In October of 2011 our buck Bumble escaped.  On Saint Patrick’s Day 2012 she had twins.

Little Miss Muffit

Driving Miss Daisy

In October of 2012 she and her mother were purposefully bred to our buck Dean.

Patches Miss Smith and Dean, October 2012

And on April 11, 2013 she had twins.

Miss Smith and her kids, April 2013

Mr Sandman

Mr. Bojangles

February 2013 is when we decided to stop breeding and had the bucks castrated.  So Miss Smith just hung out on the farm and was cute after that.

Miss Smith 2014

Miss Smith and Mr D, 2018

Miss Smith on stand, 2019

Miss Smith bloated, April 2020