Our Bad Goat Broke My Camera!!!! In The Swimming Pool!!

Today was a glorious day on the farm, as most days are! We woke up at about 7am, it's Sunday, we should be able to sleep in to at least 8am shouldn't we? We didn't and by 7:30 all the farm critters were happily filling their tummies with a nice four course breakfast!!

First course, a large red bucket filled with three way grain. Second course, another big bucket filled with something called 'all stock pellets'....kind of mysterious, but obviously something suitable for 'all stock'! Third course, a big wedge of alfalfa grass, that smells so good I am sometimes tempted to take a nibble!! Fourth and most desired first thing in the morning, warm barley. Even the youngest of our chicks, come running when I spoon out the warm barley into their trays; they actually come running from the far reaches of the fenced in pen!!

After all tum tums are full, the sassy little goats begin their day of mischievous adventures! Never a stone unturned, I believe, must be their motto!!! If you are on the other side of their penned in area, working on a project of some sort such as wiring up a broken fence, their little goat eyes are watching your every move!! They don't miss a trick!!!

Today was also a busy one, like all others. We acquired 10 new four week old chicks, now making our count of chicks well over 50...(ok, now you can call us crazy!!!). We returned home, introduced all the new little ones, to all our "old" little ones, and all was good on the old homestead.

We received a call from some new farmer friends in town, who had one day old chicks, two of them! You see, we have a, shall I say, "crazy" hen who has been sitting on eight eggs for at least 40 days now!!! She found a dark, quiet corner in the coop and sits there day in day out, trying to hatch out these eggs, which have not been fertilized, or they would have hatched after about 21 days!!!

Her name: Lizzy Borden... Although she carries no axe... she is a wee bit crazy!!!! Lizzy is gentle and loving though and has never pecked at me, no matter how I manipulated her feathers, checking to see by chance, if little ones had miraculously hatched out!

I decided, she NEEDED babies....after her determination and patience, she so deserves them. So this afternoon after receiving a call Amy and Rob had two little chicks, we rushed to fetch them and brought them back to our farm. Upon arrival, I approached Lizzy's nest and slowly lifted her rump, slid two (warm, very warm) eggs to the side, picked them up and placed them in the basket I had on the straw covered floor.

TEAZER - to find out the rest of Lizzy's story, you will have to read my upcoming hub about her! Shame on me huh!!!!!!

So, to get back to the goats, the naughty goats!!!!!!

We have our pens out front divided, to segregate animals who live well together, from those who don't!!! One side houses five pygmy goats, a handsome rooster (Fabio) and eight adult hens. Another pen (the nursery), houses three mature banty hens (very tiny, but sassy little girls) our other young rooster (Mr. D) and all our new chicks, the ones we lost count of, but are somewhere near 60+ now, after today's additions!

Dave made a great double wired door between the two pens that latches automatically when moving from one to another. I had placed three of the young chicks, the larger ones, on the side with the goats to see if they would be accepted by the hens and Fabio. The door closed behind me, as I placed them onto a pile of alfalfa, which they began nibbling immediately.

All was well as I headed for the main gate and on my way to the house. I wanted to grab my camera(which I normally have at my side at all times) as I forgot to scoop it up on my way out to the coop earlier. I placed my trusty little digital in my coat pocket and headed back to the critters. Upon my return I found the three chicks hiding behind the door, an obvious sign, they were not happy on that side of the pen...perhaps a few pecks from the fussy hens?!

We have large, wooden spools in the pens for happy goat play and once inside, I placed my camera, temporarily, very temporarily onto the spool. In a split second, I made a decision...a bad decision, one I will end up regretting immediately!!!! I then bent down and on first attempt, managed to catch two of the chicks, swiftly opened the door and placed them safely inside the nursery.

Before I could turn my head towards the goat who was now firmly planted against my left leg, I heard Dave yell out from the other side of the pen, "OH, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!". With one swift move, Licorice grabbed the camera strap with her mouth and tossed it into the air and "curr plunk", into the swimming pool we have inside the pen for drinking water and play!!!!

Within a second or two, Dave grabbed for the camera, as it bubbled it's way to the bottom, from pending doom, but IT WAS TOO LATE!!!

Did you know, if a camera is not underwater camera, it CANNOT get wet....AT ALL!!!????

He handed it to me, and upon immediate inspection, I could tell it was "dead"!!! My poor camera...my constant companion, my love, my life....DEAD!!!! The lenses were fogged over, the battery compartment wet, every crevice oozing with water!!!!

But, earlier I had just taken pictures of Lizzy and her unhatchable eggs, for another hub I will be writing.... how can I download them now? *   What will I do without my camera????? Oh my, I felt stabbing pains in my heart... my camera....dead!!!!!!

AND, where was that bad, bad little goat???!!!!!! Licorice quickly disappeared... she knew she had done something bad and high tailed it inside the barn... she was hoping I would blame Tootsie, her sister, who looks like her twin. But, Tootsie’s horns are curled and Licorice has beautiful straight ones...and those are the ones I caught a glimpse of running away from the scene of the crime!!

So what do you do when a BAD little goat destroys your prized possession, your constant companion, your life line????? Buy a new one of course, and that I will do as soon as I can make the 89 mile trip to the big city!!!! (one of my other hubs :-).

BAD, BAD little goat!!!! Perhaps I should make her pay for my replacement....hmmmmmmmmmmmm, wonder how much a new digital would cost if paid for in grain, pellets and alfalfa hay??? Seems, she will be paying me back for a very long time!!!!!

*  Footnote:  My memory card is intact!!!! Yeah, just downloaded the photos.... I guess they are a tad more hardy when submerged in water than are digital cameras!!! I'm doing a happy dance!!!