Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Dressing Up Goats, Cleaning Troughs

We decided to dress up Jo, one of the World's Cutest Fainting Goats, as Batman for Halloween. Unfortunately it just didn't work out all that well. The costume didn't really fit right, the black cape blended in too much with the black areas on Jo, and all in all it was a Halloween fail. We always joke that Jo wants to be Batman for Halloween so we decided to make her wish a reality. She was pretty tolerant of actually wearing the costume aside from the head band with the batwings for her head. She shook and rubbed her head until that was around her neck. Of course since she already has long black ears that stick out to the side I guess she didn't really need that part anyway.

If goats could talk . . . any suggestions as to what Jo is saying right now??

Total costume fail. The bat symbol wouldn't lay flat on her chest.

More costume fail. The bat wings are around her neck and you can't even see the yellow part of the belt. She was too fat and it is all under her stomach.

Yep, total failure. She looks like she has two sets of batwings in this picture between her ears and the wings around her neck.

We needed to clean the waterers again today. Jason announced that he was going to "make this easier." I hate it when he says things like that as I know it is going to be a huge production and not feel any easier. He proceeded to collect a bunch of tools, some pipes (I was like WTF?? as he dug out the pipes) and then loaded the generator in the back of the truck. What went through my mind was "great, more 'don't try this at home' activities."



We went in the Big Boys' pasture first. Apparently whomever installed the waterers used a product called loctite on the bolts. There have been many words used to describe loctite each time we've needed to clean the waterers and today was no exception. I've never heard of loctite before but I have now heard a litany of uncomplimentary things about it. Jason proceeds to get out some socket wrenches and the pipes and starts trying to loosen the bolts on the waterer so we can take the top off and clean it. He inserted the handles of the wrenches into the pipes so he could have more leverage when trying to loosen the bolts - so that is what the pipes were for!?


Jason getting his wrenches and pipes ready

wrenches inserted into pipes for leverage


I am instructed to hold the pipe/wrench on the bottom while Jason attempts to loosen the bolt from the top. I would never bet against Jason in an arm wrestling contest and I would always bet against myself. You can imagine how this went. Jason is putting everything he's got into turning this wrench leveraged with the pipe. I'm trying to keep my end from moving. This resulted in my basically playing ring around the waterer as I hung onto my wrench/pipe while Jason outmuscled me and spun me around. This irritated him. I was accused of not trying very hard. Good thing he had plan B.

Plan B involved the generator and some rotary cutter thing. With an ugly look on his face and much muttering and shouting (I couldn't hear him as the generator and the tool were making a lot of noise and I probably didn't want to know what he was saying anyway) the sparks flew as he cut away. This plan worked as the bolts with loctite have now been cut into pieces and removed from the waterers and replaced with new bolts that don't have any loctite on them. This should make for much easier cleaning in the future although it made things take forever this time around.



Of course the big boys heard all the noise and came wandering up from the back of the pasture to see what was going on. Thomas checking things out.

Moe was happy to supervise

Grand was keeping a very close eye on Jason

Thomas was the first to christen the clean waterer

In the next pasture Tiny and Johnny watched Jason clean the trough

Maisie and Lily were uninterested in all of the noise we were making

Norman, Missy, Cinnamon and Silky

Calimba and MyLight

Darby, Alex and Lighty trotting through the field. They look cute but if you look closely something is a bit off. Yes, that is Darby running away with his feedbag on again.

Dutch, Renny and Sam

Murphy, Dutch and Wiz having an afternoon nap


5 comments:

Lauren said...

A) I used to dress my pygmy goats up in costumes for Halloween- it was DEFINITELY very cute.

B) Please don't let Anita see this post because I don't know that we've ever cleaned our waterers and as soon as she knows its possible, that will be on the chore list. :)

Seindria said...

I remember small engine repair class and Loctite. Instead of people doing things the proper way and actually, you know, learning, they'd slap (way too much) Loctite on the oilpan bolts.

And I always seemed to pick those engines. I think I cursed more than the boys.

Funder said...

hahahaha, your poor Jo has joined the Hall of Human Shame with Dixie! I love it!

I love loctite in the correct situations! I bought a new wheelbarrow when we bought the house. One month later, the wheel fell off. I loctite'd it back on (with the low-temp stuff, just in case) and a year later it's as sturdy as it ever was. The stuff on the waterers must've been the kind you have to heat to get off. Not that you're a wuss, not at all. It was that damn hi-temp loctite!

lytha said...

this had me in tears from laughing so hard and my man was cracking up too, esp. at the part "he accused me of not trying very hard."

your blog is great fall vacation breakfast reading!

Mare said...

I totally just read about you in the Retirement Planning article in Horse Illustrated! Very cool!