Watercolored Daegann

I've said it before, gotta say it again, You meet the coolest people because of GOATS. ;) I do! One such gal is Melissa Perryman. She and I became friends from friends on Facebook. Like meets like, so to speak. I just befriended a animal freak. It was months later that I got to see how talented she is. She asked to use photos of mine on FB. Sure! And she did. Here is the one she did of Daegann. My newest buck.
But here are a few more!

Here is what makes her so unique. HAIR. Long luscious hair so very difficult to draw.
And personality. She captures it wonderfully. Perfect for pet portraits.

Plus she does a variation of styles.


This is stipple. Its another way to illustrate. I find it frustrating and timely. But
here she illustrates this horse beautifully.



She can paint/draw people. PEOPLE are by far the hardest thing
to accurately portray. So is straight on shots. Foreshortening shots.

Like i said earlier, VERY talented. Her ability to jump across mediums is
just awesome. She masters each one whether its pencil, watercolor, charcoal,
or pen an ink.

Here is her Information.

Melissa's Website

become a fan on Facebook

I hope that if you ever need a portrait done of one of your animals. Or kids. Give her a call! So impressed... can't you tell?

POOR LITTLE FROGS

 That is NOT what my neighbor says when he gigs that sucker.

Gig? Frog? What is this you say? Its called Froggin.
And i went froggin again last night. Yup, old pro here....
Ok i'm not allowed to gig, and i can't drive, all billy wants me to do is take pictures,
and don't tip the boat. Ok. I can handle that. Sort of... Tip the boat?
This is a finely tuned sits on TOP of the water, and it can sink. Very Easily.

Here are some pics. I put the camera at 1000 iso and 1600 at times.
shot at 250 and ap is opened to 3.5. I had a flash attached too. I'm
surprised it got a few good shots.

Billy likes to just rock the boat off the trailer.
Dangerous? I don't know. He jigs the truck back
and forth stopping short till the air boat is off the trailer. The airboat
doesn't weigh all that much. They have to be so light to skim the
surface of the water.

We get into the canal and speed along till we come up on "the fav" spots.
This is the C-18 canal outside of West Palm. We're heading East on it?
We put in outside of Corbett. Billy "gigs" all over florida.
Best gigging he says is in Miami. Go Figure!



My view from the cheap seats.
It's beautiful. Eeerie and believe it or not quite serene.
Even with this MONSTER airplane prop only 2 inches from your head.



Rodney gets the earphones. :) I suffer.



This is the gig holding a frog, going into the catch net. Its crude but it works.
and gigger's have been doing it this way for a hunderd years. Sans the airboat.
Billy maneuvers the boat with the little red handle you see below.
Left rudder. Left rudder!



What happens is you spy little frog heads popping up all over the place. Usually,
in this sea grass. You come up fast on them....



Billy has this light on top of his head. and you can spy the frogs by the
glow when the light shines on them. See any frogs below?
i see 3.


and then you GIG'em... Who came up with this term?
Here billy is missing the froggy. Yay. One for the frog...



...Who got away!



But, sometimes they don't...
sad. He's about to become dinner. I'm getting pretty good at spotting them.
You leave the little youngin's alone, and try to go for the bigger un's.
Firstly you are going 20-30 miles an hour. In the dark. Steering with one hand. Gig in the other
Then you spear. Which is only 4 little prongs with some barbs on it.
There is an art to it.



bye, bye froggy!



Billy takes us wuss's out only for about 3-4 hours. We only caught about 25 or so.
Usually he goes out later in the night starting at 10pm and he'll frog till sunup.
Then he catches hundreds of them.

He comes home tired at daybreak and i can see him cleaning them.
That part of the story might never be told. Uck! skin them and get the
legs ready for the fryer.

And yes, they tasted just like chicken!

RUTFEST- jojo + kathy's excellent adventure pt.2

YEP! you heard me right, RUTFEST. A one day tailgate show for bucks. Quite possibly in RUT. I'm totally serious. A buck in rut is a sight to see. Of course, this is not a requirement to show. and well, a buck in rut stinks. But as the name implied my buck took full advantage and was totally in rut!!! all the other bucks brought him in.

Ok! so what is RUT? you know, in the mood, horny as hell, that kind of thing. Many animals when "in rut" will give off an odor. a musky, smelly, aromatic, can't get the stink off your clothes,kind of smell. And well Noble did not disappoint!

Kathy and i went up together. I drove with Noble in the back seat of my truck. Once at Kathy's we transfered all my stuff to her truck. Loaded up her buck. and mine. and off we went to Gainesville.

More of the same from previous trips ensued click here for another of our trips. Lots of laughing. lots of pee breaks. lots of traffic. UGH! A five hour trip to Gainesville took us over 8 hours. but mostly lots of fun. And its not a fluke, we get along on long exhausting, stressful trips. :)

Once there we set up the goats in pens. Setup a gazebo that purports to open easily. And it does. and then just really do a lot of nothing till its time to sleep. We slept on the show grounds. In the flat bed. under the gazebo. quite fun, actually.

Saturday we awoke to trailers of bucks from all over the state coming in and setting up. My nerves started to bother me. My first time showing. Oh no! people are going to be looking at me! and my buck. In a ring. UGH!

The day finished in a blink of an eye. Really! And we did good. Overall, we got alot of kudos from many friends made over the past year. And i can't tell you how important a pat on the back is to a newbie. I must remember this when mentoring designers and artists... Because really that is all i remember of the day.

Since bucks are not the focus of most dairy goat owners. They try to do a year's worth of showing in one place. So this was a three ring buck show. Each ring is a different judge and each ring you can win a leg. A goat needs 3 "legs" to be "finished"... Permanent Grand Champion. A big deal in the goat world. We placed 3rd in one ring. 6th in another. We never made it to the 3rd ring. But right before lunch i got Noble LA appraised. And for a one year old not too shabby. His score was +vvv84. This I've heard is pretty good for a 1 year old buck. :)

Linear Appraisal is getting another judge trained in conformation to look at your goat and score him/her on the basis of the breed standard. Its a bit slower. and much more personal and one on one with the judge. Unlike a show where you are showing against others in the same class. LA appraisal is more accurate.

It was a fun day. An exhausting day! and a dam horse fly or deer fly bit my knee and i swelled up. So that was the only bummer of the weekend.

And overall just a great experience. Noble and I are better for it. I even think it's changed him in some ways. At first i thought oh NO! he's sick. But really he's just more serene right now. :)

The only thing i need to figure out is HOW i can show, AND take pictures. I only took three pictures the whole weekend. Bummer!

do you believe in signs?

I'm still thinking about Riki. And all week long i've been thinking about where is she and is she where she thinks she is... and so on. I keep walking around here saying, "c'mon riki gimme a sign"... :)

oh well. that is how i'm dealing with it.

but wait... let me ask you are these signs? or my overactive imagination wishing they were...

1. The day after riki died I found a cockatiel. He flew into my yard, dive bombing me. obviously trying to land on me. He's now in the living room. (i've secretly been thinking of getting one.)

2. I found a lost dog... But better yet!! i found his owner too.

3. Riki's goats stopped eating the day she came home. and she was home for 2 full days. i couldn't get them to finish anything. The day after she passed they ate.

4. Splash her buck died the week before riki did.

5. her peacocks showed up for the first time in months. they disappeared late last year. They stayed and roosted the entire time riki was home. I haven't seen them this week at all.

6. As i was fetching eggs tonight at Riki's i put the feeder down, and a chicken obliged me with one more.. talk about fresh.

7. just me thinking about riki and the afterlife, is a sign unto itself.

so? sign? or me wishing they were.

On second thought, i guess they aren't. But Riki? if you wanna give me one? how about 2 doelings out of delilah? purty please?

i miss my friend!

Riki's Gone - such a sad time.

(to see this video larger, go HERE

My friend riki.

When you make a friend, it doesn't matter if its been lifelong, or just a few months old, you know that person is your friend. And you can talk everyday or you can talk once a month. You can know one facet of that persons life, or you can know all the different facets. Although Riki and i were only friends for a few years, it felt like we had known each other always. And my life i can't remember how it was without the goats, and without Riki in it.

Riki Died Friday.
7:04 am February 15, 2008

She was only 62 years old. And having goats won't be the same again. In the 3 years I knew her I received over 30 years of goat knowledge. It was amazing and I'm grateful.

I met Riki in the in the unlikeliest of places, an internet chat room. For Goats. :) Upon receiving my first goats, I was clueless. And Riki came to my rescue.

And a friendship started. My need for a mentor, and her need to mother seemed to just work out great. I never argued with Riki about Goats, but we surely argued about everything else. I would always laugh and tell her " i have a mother"... and she would laugh and tell me, " your a mess, girl"... but secretly it was nice. Though my mother is great, Riki was not a typical advice giver, and she just seemed to know me and accept things. And i bet there was this mothering aspect to it all. And don't we all who have animals do that to an extent? Especially the fact that i focus my life around animals. And so did she.

Riki would do her best to sell me on faith. religion. And all that goes with it. For my birthday she bought me a bible. And let me tell you this is one psychodelic bible. SHE knew i wouldn't look at anything less. This bible was designed! And as a designer its fantastic. Because i'm a bit strange, this bible needed to be too. She knew what would take to get me to at least open it. I would listen. and I would hold up my hand when I had enough. I love the history. I don't like the preaching and the rhetoric. I believe in the universe. But I believe it evolved.. and here we diverged. But it didn't matter. And she respected it. And i loved her for it.

For the last 2 weeks I've been taking care of Riki's animals. So her husband doesn't have to bother with that stuff right now. And what a joy for me. I would rather (and did) spend the two hours a day as close to Riki as possible. To me? that was with the animals. Not in the hospital. Not watching her suffer. And not sitting next to her holding her hand. She had a family to help her thru till the end. I know that is important, but I knew Riki would understand. Her animals were her babies. And i was there to help them too. They won't be getting Riki Kisses anymore. That is the saddest thing of all. So, I fell right into the swing of it. And learned about each and everyone of her 40+ animals. And everyday i talk nicely to them, and give them little treats, and help them too. I think it's an honor that I could do that.

Riki's goats were her pride and joy. Each one was named especially, and appropriately and each one has a story. Each one has a bit of Riki's personality. Together they make up Riki. She named them like, Serenity, God's Promise, Dulcinea, Kissy-Face, Aurora, Lil-Bit, Latte. Can you see a bit of her in those names?

All riki was doing was looking for some SERENITY, she has found it. BUt i think she had it while alive too. And God's promise? well i'm sure you can surmise that she made a pact/a promise hoping that she could stay a while longer. Promise is 7 years old. the same age the cancer came. She stayed 6 years longer than the Doctors anticipated. Dulcinea, well, in Don Quixote's Man of La Manch she was a bit of a vamp. I could see that in Riki, in her younger days. Some good stories there. Kissy Face that is all she did with them. And so on... Each of these wonderful creatures represent just a little bit about Riki. I cherish the moments I get to spend with them. Each one is special. And each one is a little bit of Riki.

her favorite was splash. He died last week. He was always alone since he was the buck. And he just couldn't take the loneliness. He died One week before riki. And from no apparent cause. Just of a broken heart.

Poor Riki, she knew last month this was getting bad. And for the last 5 months she had been in and out of the hospital. And i would go that first day. or week. And urge her to get better and she would, to an extent. And, she would rally a bit, but cumulatively she would just get a little bit worse. Finally, I think she just realized that promise she made and knew her time was up. I guess she did all that she needed to do in this life. I don't feel that is so. But i'm just selfish.

And Riki, If you are watching, don't get too mad, I changed a few of their eating habits, hee,hee, because they just weren't eating for me, till i started to baby them. Promise is doing good, and serenity is eating more. Kissy is a bit of a bully and dulcinea still sounds like a fog horn. But they're doing fine. And i think that they will be ok. the rest of us? well...

We just miss you. But whenever i can i'll go play with the "girls" because i know they are all a part of you.

Goat Fall Festival

OR should i call this entry, Kathy and JOJO went on an outing....

Friday afternoon I decide that i'm spending the night at Kathy's house, we need to drive to Weirsdale to visit some friends and attend the Goat fall festival. At first i was waffling. Go, No Go! On or Off.

Finally, i just packed up and left the house. Of course, only after filling the car with a weeks worth of food and beverages. :) Mind you, we are only going for the day.

Weirsdale is only 3.5 hours from Kathy's house. Kathy is about an hour or so from me. So it did help that i didn't have to drive 5 hours up and 5 hours back in one day.

I HAD FUN!!!! you know, the kind of fun giggling kids have at sleep overs? That kind.

Although i did get sidetracked by some friends in need, I did finally get over to Kathy's around 11:30pm. Ate and hit the hay. I was up and raring to go at 5am. Now that is truly a first!!! I usually don't go to bed to 2 or 3... :)

Our first giggle turned guffaw was trying to get the goat corral into the back of my truck. Two little gals trying to wedge this monstrosity into my truck in the dark and barely on a cup of coffee. Kathy kept stepping in the rose bushes and swearing at it. I kept saying go wake your husband. We finally got it in. Got the goats and off we went.

Of course, halfway to the turnpike Kathy realizes she forgot to get the Homemade goats cheese out of the fridge. HA! I got mine! Another giggle ensued.

And we're off!!! And we are only 1/2 an hour behind schedule. NOT BAD!!!

The trip was a breeze. 2 hours passed like nothing. And the next hour was trying to decipher her Mapquest directions, against my Google directions, and the directions given by the Owner of the farm. All three were different. LOL. Since I was driving, It was only fair to give up control to Kathy on what was the best way. She got us there without a hitch. Pretty darn good. But not without a bit more laughter on the way. and a couple of coffee stops. how i love my coffee!

The day was fun. I crashed and burned as soon as I got there. Too much adrenaline getting there. Not really paying attention for the first hour. We were late and missed the beginning. And I mentally shut down with the lack of sleep, driving, stress, etc. I didn't even take pictures of the Mini Goat show (the reason we brought the goats). And the hoof trimming discussion.

The Fall Festival was on a sprawling horse farm. I was in HOG HEAVEN. My first love and my latest love all in the same place. At one point i was playing with a couple of yearlings, when I realized everyone was gone... OOOPs, where'd they go? lunch was being served. How can one focus with so many horses everywhere? I can't.

The highlights of the day would have to be the discussion on Fecal counts of your goats. I'm serious!! Christine was a great presenter and i was learning something I had never thought of before. Guess what I want for Christmas? Microscope!!

I met lots of really really nice people. And many of them i had been emailing with in the past. From Goat groups, or Nigerian Groups. Very cool to have finally put a face with the name.

There was a goat costume contest. Now that, I have to say was something you have to experience at least once in your life. For those that can't there are some pictures below to tide you over.

But nooooo! at 3 pm the mind and body are now overloading. It's time to drag Kathy away and git going. What i really wanted was a nap. There are two more impromptu discussions going on, and i'm just a mental mess. I know i miss my animals and i'm not going to want to stay over again at Kathy's. We gotta go! Not looking forward to driving 4 hours. I just don't know how everyone could still focus! I guess this all gets better with time.

On the road again!!!

Somewhere around the 1.5 hour mark, i succumb to exhaustion. And Kathy takes the wheel. Ha Nothing like sitting in the passenger seat to WAKE YOU UP! More adrenaline rushing thru these veins. I'm not to good at being driven. But I survived, so did Kathy knowing i was probably extremely nervous.

All in all a truly awesome day! The drive. The farm. The goats. The learning. The instant new friends made. Kathy. Everybody and everything.....

i didn't take as many photos as i would have liked. I just didn't know how to watch and learn and shoot. Ha! next time.

As Kathy put it we got the kinks out for the next time!!!

OH NO! next time i'm spending the night...

here are some of the highlights of the day!

This goat is gorgeous! and loved my iced tea.
Before i knew it he was drinking out of my cup!

Beautiful sprawling oaks every where. Such a serene place.

This darn thing was exactly the size of my truck bed with the liner in it. We wedged it in pretty good. I have no idea how. But we did it.

This is the infamous Kathy. She put that damn wig on
2 hours into the trip. And went into public
stores looking like that.. LOL

The farm we were at was awesome, They raise world class Paso Finos. Click here to see their website.

and here.

Nigerian Goats were mostly present that day. Click here to learn more about them

my friend riki

The amazing thing about the internet is that you can meet people from all over the world. and when you meet someone in your own neighborhood that way, its almost kind of eerie...

Riki is the goat lady extraordinaire. and a good friend. She is like me and has too many animals to count. Even with a menagerie of my own i still love to go over there and play with hers. Riki is always coming to my aid. I'm such a panicky goat owner, and she is the voice of reason. and calmness. and just plain awesome. And her hubby Sheridan is pretty darn cool too! he builds things to perfection and has this quiet way about him that makes you wonder what the heck is he thinking... grin.

these photos were shot in january. And i must say even i was impressed with my camera.

This is honky... blind but happy.



Riki the pied goat piper.




This is splash. Oreo's papa.
The kindest buck i've ever enountered.
and i love his smell.





snowflake? she's a few days old.


Leaky is the coolest dog!!!! a briard.
He is the resident goat keeper.
and defender of the land.

The REAL Florida

The real Florida many who live here in the cities, know nothing about. I didn't, until recently. I grew up here and never thought outside that box. Until I got my horse. And we rode. and rode. And then all sorts of other things came to light. The everglades, and the natural wonder of the Real Florida. Not South Beach. Not Ft. Lauderdale night life. Not any of it. Just 20 minutes West of the beach is a whole other side of Florida. And its sad how many out there just don't know.

I stumbled on this webshot page, and I'm mesmerized. And a tad jealous. For the last 3 hours i have been viewing these wonderful photos, and i come to find out the gentleman is a judge, in West Palm Beach. Judge Bailey, and his moniker is "judgestoryteller" on webshots. Wow. WOW...

The photos i've been entranced with are from his albums on the COW HUNTERS. And he gives cute little descriptions on CUR dogs, and MARSH TACKIES... which are also called FLorida Cracker horses. And cracker is not a derogatory name. It comes from the whips, the old cow hunters used to use. They are A breed unto their own. And almost at extinction. The horse and the man. Truly a fascinating horse, and history. And please check out these photos. Its a part of FLorida I'm afraid might not last too much longer.

make sure you go to his album and see what youu are missing... Did i mention i was jealous? pea green.... I wonder if brandy and i still could do a full day of trail riding... hmmm...


by judgestoryteller