rule # 285 in homesteading: goats and bees don't mix

cinnamon, the self sucking goat, pissed our bees off yesterday. from what i can tell, she got a little too close to the hive for their personal comfort and they came after her. unfortunately for her, she was tethered and couldn't escape so she crawled under a tree greg had downed last winter. i heard her bellowing and went out to see what was wrong. at first, i thought she had gotten tangled that way and was choking so i leaped in and unchained her, then noticed she was covered in bees, poor thing. i jumped back and feared for the worst.

for the next hour, i attempted to coax her out, i couldn't go in for fear of being stung myself. and since i am fairly allergic to them, i didn't think that would be wise. her kid, rue, ran up to her and got nailed, he backed off quickly. she kept trying to get up to get away and then they'd start stinging her worse so she'd crawl back under the log.

greg finally got home and got on his gear and got the smoker fired up and rescued her. she had lumps all over her body and her face was swelling considerably. i bet she'd been stung a few hundred times. she kept crying in pain.

we've done what we can for her, i gave her a b-12 and b-complex shot to boost her adrenaline. i gave her doses of immune booster tincture and plantain tincture. greg rubbed her down with tobacco mixed with water, chopped up plantain and yarrow.

today, she looks pretty rough. she's got bottle jaw and her eyes and nose are swollen. she's been drinking a lot of water which is good and is probably keeping her alive. i give her doses of tincture periodically and i'll probably give her another b shot later today. i've thought about giving her motrin or ibuprofin for the pain but have held off so far. mostly, i'm worried about the bottle jaw. that usually comes out when they've got worms really bad but she'd been wormed recently so i don't think that's the problem. i need to research that a bit more.

overall, yesterday was a day i just want to forget about. i had a headache all day long that moved into my neck/shoulders after i tripped in a hole and broke 2 of my toes while tethering out the goats. a hole that should have contained a post but had been empty and weed covered for a month previous before my foot found it. then, last night, sage spiked a fever. he was fairly hot, probably around 102.5 or higher (we don't have a thermometer but i'm pretty accurate at guessing). i gave him some motrin which is a rare occassion around here. most kids eat that stuff like candy but he didn't care for it at all. afterwards, i gave him some echinacea which he slurped right down. my kid is an herb kid for sure! today, he spiked again and was pretty miserable so i gave him some more, much to his dismay. i usually like to let fevers work their magic but his misery was too much for me to bear.