Blakey Animal Menagerie

Blakey Animal Menagerie welcomed 6 beautiful F2 Pyreelers tonight/this morning.

Queenie is earning her name tonight! She got wet in the storm so she had to inside and put on pink piggie jammies for the Astros game (now that the power is back on).

It's never to early to start Bible studies.

Gorgeous chocolate buckskin bottle buckling. Born 2/15 so can be weaned anytime or bottled until you are ready.

I got him for my dairy line but he has one teste not quite where it should be and will likely need to be surgically welthered. It breaks my heart because he is by far the sweetest buckling I've ever had.

Lead trained. Potty trained. He'll make an awesome pet or a buddy goat - I just don't have room for welthers, no matter how sweet.

Meet up near Cleveland, Texas.

PM for more details.

Tinker Bella is headed to her forever home.

We are always picking up balloon scraps from the goat yard and chicken pens.

Just in time for Easter! I have a pair of hand-raised Nigerian Dwarf bottle babies (DOB 2/15).

They are both super sweet, potty trained and walk well on a leash with a halter.

These would be perfect starter pet quality goats (not for breeding).

I would prefer they stay together so I'll make a deal for both.

They can go now on a bottle or when weaned.

Located near Cleveland, Texas.

It's going around again. There's a picture very similar to this one claiming that she purchased chicken but got "fake meat". This is real chicken. Trust me. I took the picture as I was making dinner tonight.

It is from a commercial meat bird. These are not the cute backyard chickens you see in funny reels who lay pretty blue and brown eggs. These are hybrid birds that grow at extreme rates to be harvested at 8-10 weeks of age weighing 7 pounds or more each. (Cute backyard birds weigh about 5 pounds at 5 or 6 months old.) They eat and p**p and that's it until they are processed. We loving refer to them as "Meat Chunks".

Don't get me wrong. They are delicious, especially when home grown, but they are mean little grotesque creatures while still alive. And unless you are ordering gourmet chickens from a place like Butcher Box or Wild Fork, those are what you are all eating. And, BTW, chickens are not Vegan.

We are working on a line of Red Sasso chickens that we hope to have available in the fall but until then...

So how many mini goats does it take to pull a chariot?

Lovely. No power. Guess I'll be heating baby bottles on the camp stove.

Can you guess who who jumps the fence every day to go foraging?

They also love tomato slices, cucumber slices, cucumber peelings, carrot peelings, cilantro, lettuce and other leafy greens.

Exciting news! I kicked off something new last week and I have to share how excited I am about it! I discovered an incredible community that's been a source of support, pushing me to stretch and grow. My health journey has begun and the inches are just melting away!

As you probably already know, I am committed to living a clean and healthy lifestyle because this body does not belong to me and I need to take care of it. Not only do the foods I put in my body need to be beneficial - not harmful - to my health and well-being but the products that I use must also be wholesome and nonharmful to me, my family and my environment. Modere fits perfectly into my lifestyle.

🌟 Stay tuned for more updates – it only gets better from here! 🎉

The San Jac is on our yard again.

You may or may not know that we converted our little Christian gift shop, Memaw's Essentials at 59 Trading Place last spring into a chapel for Our Little Church TX to meet in for Sunday Services, movie nights, prayer meeting and Bible study.

Well, last week, we were given notice that our rent would go from $275 a month to $950 (a 345% increase) for a roughly 400 square foot building. Until now, my husband I have been solely responsible for all of the supplies and overhead for Our Little Church, only accepting donations to raise money for our corporate filings and Federal Non-Profit application – a goal for which we still have not met. We just cannot afford that kind of increase, especially for such a small building so I am sorry to announce that Sunday Services will move completely online starting February 4th.

From now until then, everything that is not nailed down in needs to find a new home so if you have your eye on something, let us know.

We would appreciate your prayers during our transition.

I stole this but if you’re new to Texas you need to read!

Public service announcement 😆

If you are new to Texas, we are about to experience “Texas Winter”. This is 6 or 7 days of cold, maybe some ice and snow. Frank Billingsley will threaten snow. It may snow, it may not and if Frank says 2 inches it could be 10 or it could be 1/2”. It doesn’t matter how much snow it is, we’ll all freak out because we don’t see snow often.
The threat of snow (or ice) from good ol’ Frank is your prompt to head to the grocery store and buy milk, eggs and bread. It doesn’t matter if you need these items. It’s just what we do. Everyone in town will be there.

You’ll also need to make a mad dash for faucet covers and finding them and getting out of the store will be like an episode of the hunger games. You’re in the redneck district.

Don’t look for a sled. You won’t find one. In the rare chance we get enough ice or snow to sled grab some cardboard or a trash can lid and go find the nearest hill. Yes, we know it’s not a hill. You live in the flatland, just go with it. You’ll be alarmed by the fact that you’re “sledding” towards a bar ditch, fence or maybe into a farm to market road.

Just go with it.
You’ll be fine.

We don’t have equipment to handle the winter and weather. The roads will be a mess and even though the state has been telling you for a week they’re ready, they’re not and it won’t work. Just stay home if you can and if you can’t just come to terms with the fact that nobody here knows how to drive in snow and ice.

Whatever you do, DO NOT talk about snow tires.

If you happen to slide off the road or get stuck, turn your flashers on, take a deep breath and wait. Two guys in a four wheel drive truck will be along in no time to offer assistance. Don’t try to help them, they live for this stuff, and will do what they can to get you back on the road. If either one of them screams “hey y’all watch this” just get back and get your phone out and start recording, you’ll probably have a viral video.

Also of note, when they offer you beer and deer sticks, don’t be rude, take them and smile.

No matter what you do, don’t talk about how they did it back home in any of these scenarios.

Nobody cares.

You live in Texas now.

When we act like we’re going to die and start to complain about the 7 days of winter just shush, we’re serious and we don’t care how much you love it.

We don’t.

You’ll be back in shorts and flip flops in a week to ten days and it’ll be nice until right around Easter.

Texas “second winter” will be 2 or 3 days and will hit right around Easter, usually the week before or the week after. This will hit right around the time you plant flowers and a garden.

We know you’re not from around here when we see you’ve planted flowers before Easter and before the “second winter” has hit.

This is why all the people at the nursery don’t sound like us when you’re shopping for plants.

We know better.

During second winter it’ll go from 70 to 25 and you’ll experience all four seasons in one day.

This too shall pass, get used to it and when second winter is over you can enjoy the 3-4 weeks of “spring” before summer gets here and it’ll be melt your face off hot until sometime around Halloween.

All 💯 Facts.
I borrowed this You can too.

Just a reminder that Our Little Church TX is holding thier inaugural Christmas Candlelight Services on Saturday, December 23rd!

Join us for an evening of Christmas Carols, Scripture Readings, Musical Interlude, a Special Christmas Message and, yes, Christmas cookies and Christmas punch!

If you cannot join us in person, you can still join us online through our Facebook Live!

https://fb.me/e/y9gI59DpR

Holiday PSA

If you are not familiar with goats, PLEASE do not get one for Christmas just because they are so cute and you just have to have one. Goats are not these easy creatures that you can just put in your yard and not tend to.

They look for reasons to die every single day and take special care. Most vets don’t know how to treat them. Your long time breeders are your best bet to learn anything and everything about them.

Please learn about goats BEFORE you get one. Don’t learn the hard way by not knowing beforehand and having them die on you. Goats are work. You have to literally stare at them every day to see if they are ok or not. It breaks my heart to see so many pet goats die because their owner didn’t research first.

Even seasoned goat owners lose goats but they have a better chance if you know what you’re getting into and do your research FIRST!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di_SuBC7PRA

The Wilder Brothers - I Wanna Goat For Christmas (1955) The Wilder Brothers were three actual brothers, Warner, Walter, and George Weidler. After performing as members of successful orchestras, including Les Brow...