We have one boy and two girls. We are currently trying to come up with names for them based on their personalities (The boy is a bit of a drama king, if you get what I mean. Already decided he is the new head of the goat herd.) We plan to name them once we assure they get past the critical phase where babies may fade and die.
We had another goat, Clara, give birth to two babies about two weeks ago, but she died suddenly three days before the storm, so we are currently bottle-feeding the two babies. After being around them for several days, we already named them. The boy from Clara is named Billy, and the girl is called Hilly [from William and Hilliary, if you get my meaning, although it is something I can't share with my Republican neighbors ;) ]. I promise you that under no circumstance will we name any of our goats Donald or JD. I wouldn't inflict that on them. LOL!
@allyn Billy and Hilly! I love what you did there!!!
So sad about their mama. That is rough. Bottle feeding must be exhausting, they are lucky to have you. Can't wait to see what you come up with for the three-some, you cleaver girl!
@lovendures Here's an update on the voting situation in NC, from today's NYT.
"Four days after historic floods battered western North Carolina, the difficulties facing county officials who are trying to stage a presidential election in the area have begun to take shape.
A preliminary check of election offices in North Carolina’s flooded west showed that offices in 14 counties were closed, with officials unsure when they would open, the State Board of Elections said late Monday. One office in Haywood County, just west of hard-hit Asheville, could not be reached.
While the region is largely rural, it holds a healthy share of the state’s nearly 7.7 million registered voters. Some 570,000 registered voters live in the 11 counties where less than half of the electrical power had been restored as of Monday afternoon. They include 145,000 Democrats and 185,000 Republicans.
One of the hardest hit counties, Buncombe, is home to Asheville, the region’s Democratic stronghold. In most counties, however, Republicans or unaffiliated voters are dominant.
Election officials face a panoply of problems. The remnants of Hurricane Helene struck the region shortly after absentee ballots were put in the mail, and the U.S. Postal Service has suspended mail service to virtually all of western North Carolina.
Those ballots would have been dispatched earlier, but they had to be reprinted after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. quit the presidential race and sued to have his name removed from ballots.
County officials also are likely to encounter trouble finding accessible sites for early voting, which begins Oct. 17. Finding voters who were displaced will be yet another headache. So will be registering voters, as the deadline for registering is Oct. 11.
Michael Bitzer, an elections expert at Catawba College, said that “counties have been preparing for early voting sites that may no longer exist.”
“They had reserved polling places that may have been swept away in the floodwaters,” he said. “They have voters who requested an absentee ballot and cannot receive that ballot, let alone the poll workers and the major disruption to their lives.”
In 2018, after Hurricane Florence ravaged 28 counties along the North Carolina coast, the state extended the voter registration deadline and spent $400,000 for a campaign to locate displaced voters and educate other residents about voting options.
Officials don’t have such plans yet, said Gerry Cohen, a veteran analyst of state government and a member of the election board in Wake County, which includes the state capital, Raleigh.
“There are a lot of unknowns on what to do,” he said. “We’re a couple of days away from finding out what’s going on.”"
Thank you so much for this. Our forum community member asked last night what I knew about voting and I texted what I could find. This is more in depth information and will be helpful. She is really concerned about voting ability which is saying something since she is still without power/cell service and water. Water will be out for weeks, perhaps months. On the occasion she can find WiFI she asks for news updates. She doesn't want to go off rumors and still can't get photos or videos so doesn't know what places out of her immediate area look like.
@lovendures thank you for letting us know, Love. Next time you talk to her, pls let her know that we are praying for her. And please let us know if there is anything else we can do to help.
Posted by KMAC / @kathleen:
I'm in Asheville, NC, and we've had torrential rains for two days and nights and some flooding in the area. My sisters are in metro-Atlanta, and so I'm also jittery for them. I hope this moves through quickly.
I was catching up with our recent posts and just saw this. KMAC posted this on September 26. Sending you love and protection, Kathleen. When you can access the internet, please let us know how you are doing.
Thank you for bringing this up @Deetoo!
I know things are extremely difficult with communication there right now and hope that you are safe. Please keep us informed as soon as you have the ability to do so.
@DEETOO, Thank you for noticing @KMAC's post. I have been searching for her, looking for a way to reach out to her. I don't have her mobile number but I do have her email address. So I will email her and see if she receives it.
In the meantime, I will send healing, prayers, angels, and a speedy return to communication, and hope she is okay.
🙏🏻💜🪽🙌🪽💜🙏🏻 hope we hear from Kathleen soonest ... sending Light and Love.
@jeanne-mayell I live in WNC, and we are absolutely devastated. Asheville is even WORSE than my county, and I can't even imagine what it will take to get things back to some type of normal there. Our internet, power, and cell phone service is either out, or incredibly spotty. I am only writing this because I have a few minutes via hotspot. My house and cars were flooded, but everyone is safe, and our main living quarters is okay. I would be concerned about anyone from the area right now, but know that there is a real problem with communication, so KMAC may not be able to get to an area with service. Please keep Southern Appalachia in your thoughts. So many people have come by my house to help, and it has been heartwarming. (I cry every.single.time.) So many have lost EVERYTHING and/or loved ones. As the news has been reporting, it was just Biblical in its power and destruction. I live in a flood zone (obviously)- but it reached the 500 year flood level. We still can't believe it. The photo is of my front porch. The river usually can't be viewed from my house. Lots of love to all of you.