Worst Day So Far

So.... Yesterday was my worst day here so far. As all of you know we have been blessed by the presence of three little baby goats who are growing quickly and are a joy to play with. We also are preparing for many, many more babies to be born. As amazing and fun as this new livestock internship can be, it is also extremely challenging in a lot of ways. Yesterday was a prime example. For the males, we castrate. For both males and females, we disbud. For all goats we give shots. I did all three yesterday to these precious little ones. We can't use the male babies for our herd to breed because we can start inbreeding and we all know that's bad. So we usually buy a buck every 2 years to keep things genetically clean and introduce new genetics into our herd. So sad to say poor little Philbert will probably be goat me some day. David, the farm manager is the one that castrates. It was quite a sight to watch, but is actually considered more humane then the banding technique. A quick castration allows for quick pain. Banding is 2 weeks of constant pain. I won't go into any more detail then that because it was like watching a surgery procedure, well I guess it was. So David did the deed then Philbert was squirted with a generous amount of iodine and we were off to the next round of torture. Kids are born without any type of horns. Usually around 7 days after birth their buds pop through the skin and horn growth begins. Disbudding is used to prevent goats from getting tangled in the bush or fencing and to limit aggressive behavior. It needs to be done when they are 3 days to 2 weeks old. After that the horn buds are to big. So when we disbud we put them in a box with their heads poking out and hold their heads and put an extremely hot iron rod on the bud for 15 seconds. This destroys the bone growth cells and prevents the horns from growing. So Jess used the rod and I got the job of holding them down. I have to place my right hand over its ears and hold the neck and my left hand over its mouth and hold it still. They kicked and cried. Their tongue came out and one even peed in the box. Then we had to give them all shots which really burns when we inject them. After each kid was through we gave them back to their mom and they would go right to her and suckle for comfort. Experiencing this all was so hard. Theres the sights, sounds, touch, and smells. I could smell burnt hair for hours after that.

I quickly hurried Jess to get her afternoon chores done because I was holding myself together the entire time. I had tears in my eyes and just tried to keep my cool. Once I got back to the dorm, I barely got one foot through the door and I just broke down. I wept and wept. It was good to have that little bit of alone time just to cry it out. Then I had a girls night out and that helped me recover a bit. What really was good was my talk with Jess later that night about the whole experience. I told her that it's times like that where I realize how fallen we are. The same Jesus that created the world now resides in me and I in him and my spirit just cries out that something is wrong here. We weren't originally created for this. I can't believe I'll have to do many, many more of these during my time here.

Other then that, things have been great. I only have one more work week under Jess then I am the official new livestock intern. She will be around for one more week after that but not working. Her and her husband are going to be packing for their move. She will only be around for a reference for me when I can catch her but will not be doing anymore with the farm. So in two weeks I am completely on my own for the job. It is exciting and frightening at the same time. We had a good talk today about the road ahead while we were shopping at Tractor Supply for goat fencing. I actually bought my own pair of hoove trimmers. Haha!

So continue to pray please for me to rest in Christ and keep my eyes on Jesus. I have many challenges ahead. Also be praying for my sanity as I will have a heavy load of responsibility on the farm. There are also some meetings in the works for me to start something brand new on the farm. This is exciting but will be a lot of work. I won't tell you what yet. We will see what my meetings hold! Well, I better go check my babies. Until next time.