Monday at work was fairly uneventful.  Monday after work became more exciting.  I had ordered a gun last week.  Al called and told me that it was in today.  I called Tammy and told her and Duke to pick it up after school.  They did.  Plus, he had gotten .22 ammo in stock.  So she bought several bricks.  

      Tammy and Duke got home just about the same time that I did.  Duke was grinning like a turd eatin’ possum.  Of course, he had already unboxed the gun.  It was cool.  A Henry .22 Golden Boy with the octagon barrel.  If you’ve got a new gun, then you have to go try it out.  We headed to the pond to sling some lead.  

     On the way there, Duke stopped to check a trap that he had set last night.  We have had a black and white stink cat living underneath the big red barn.  I had seen him once.  And he has been wasting GARP’s dog food.  So, Duke set a live trap for it.  Guess what?  He trapped the stink cat.  Now, there is the dilemma of getting the stink cat out of the trap without getting sprayed.  I snuck into the barn, off to the side of the trap and aimed the new gun at the stink cat.  One shot–dead skunk.  Left him in the trap for later disposal.

     Duke and I then proceeded to try out the new gun.  Ooohh—weee!! That thing shoots smooth.  Big fun.  Not the biggest gun or the highest priced gun that I have, been this thing is already near the top of my list of favorites.  

     Now, it was getting dark.  Time to get chores done.  I had to go into the loft of the red barn to get some alfalfa.  Whew!  Let’s just say that the barn has a maliferous odor about it.  We’re going to have to let it air out a bit.  We’ll empty the trap at a later date.  

     Had a flush done this past summer with the help of Schneberger.  We had the K9 doe bred to Rumour Has It and flushed.  There were 7 grade 1 embryos in the flush.  They put 2, 2 and 3 into 3 recips.  They were due the 10th.  We had 2 on the 9th, 3 on the 10th and 2 on the 11th.  All 7 are alive and well.  Hopefully, they grow out and make it worthwhile.

      Here’s the thing about flushes and ET work–although not a huge number, those 7 kids out of K9 is basically the same as 3-4 years of production out of her.  It takes management and dollars, but when a flush works, it can be a beneficial tool to any program.  I personally think that I am still only interested in flushing proven does.  The jury is still out as to how productive this flush will be for our operation.  Thanks to Jared for helping us out on this endeavor.  If they are typical of the K9 kids in the past, they will look green, stringy and borderline shitty until they are about 10 weeks old, at which point, I will have banded them.  Then, they will blow up and get good.  We’ll see how smart I am at this game.  It will either work or it won’t.  If it doesn’t, we will wish it would have.  

Have a good day and a better tomorrow.

P.S.  for all of you loyal “Word of the Day” readers on the oklahomashowgoats.com message board.  I know that you have been deprived of a “word” for quite some time now.  I don’t know if the word is dead or not, but I can tell you for sure that there is a “Voice Memo” of the day.  Tommy and Big I have discovered the Voice Memo feature on their phones.  The word of the day is HILARIOUS.  When you see a text voice memo from Big I that is titled “Children, gather round”, you know that it is going to be good.