Ahhhh home! With two fat bellies! Mrs. Harrell is an ANGEL! I learned more from her in the first 5 minutes of meeting her than two days of hem hawing with the breeders of my babies. I did find out that Pipp couldn't possibly be full pygmy as she has a half white body (Which is really totally fine, they are just pets. But that does show me that the breeders have no idea what they are talking about, period). Mrs. Harrell looked at my bottles and nipples and said they were all fine. She had me throw out my rolled oats and let me know that alfalfa hay was ok (But not ideal) for the girls but if I ever got a boy it had to go. She gave me a big bag full of what she feeds and the label off her bag and told me where to get it (The girls thought it was yummy by the way). Then she looked at me, rubbed Izzy's horn bud's and said.... "These have to go, that's a safety issue". So she told me we'd take care of that after the girls ate. She went inside and brought out two full mountain dew bottles, one with a pritchard teat and took Izzy from me. (She also inspected the girls and said they were lucky I was so persistent because they looked to be ok and not literally starving, lol).She sat down on her steps and sat Izzy beside her with her butt to the back of the step. Gently she wrapped an arm around Izzy, pulling her into her side and squeezed on each side of her mouth, pushing the lips forward to accept the nipple. It went right in but Izzy seemed to be having issues with the nipple. Mrs. Harrell stopped and said she thought she had just the trick. She disappeared inside and returned with a lambs teat (A red rubber one) and switched out the nipples. She put the nipple in Izzy's mouth and Izzy began to suck, still half chewing but better. Mrs. Harrell pulled the nipple forward slowly as if she might take it away and Izzy went NUTS! All of a sudden it was on like Donkey Kong! Izzy sucked down about 6 ounces in a wink of an eye and was fat as a little tick! Pipp followed the same procedure and then fell asleep, standing up, with the nipple in her mouth, lol. After that, and tears of joy from me, I followed Mrs. Harrell back to her little barn and she gave both the girls a shot. She said they had to get a tetanus before they could be disbudded and she didn't have it by itself so she just plain out vaccinated them for me! She stuck Pipp in the little box, shaved her head (She didn't cry or struggle, what a good little girl!), and I stepped out and BOOM, finished. She handed me Pipp with two round holes and a yellow head, lol. Izzy went next and now they have matching little heads (Ouch!). We put the girls back in their big crate and talked and talked. She gave me the mountain dew bottles with the lambs nipples FULL of goats milk from her goats. THEN as if she hadn't done enough already, she went inside and brought back out TWO FULL GALLONS of her goats milk! This woman had no intention of asking me for one red cent! All I had on me was 15 measly dollars and knowing I owed her a CRAPLOAD more than that, I humbly handed her 10 bucks (I needed the 5 for gas, remember she was an hour and a half away, lol, squeezed her neck, and told her that no words could express my gratitude. I will be returning to NC Promised Land with the girls for their next round of vaccines and wormings, etc... She gave me the number of a lady more local to me to purchase milk from if I didn't want to put them on cow's milk (Which she said would work just fine). I also offered to tag along to shows with her when I can so that I can help her however she needs it. I have shown dogs over half of my life and I know how horribly difficult it can be to venture to a show ALONE with even TWO dogs! When I return to see Mrs. Harrell I'll bring a sufficient amount of moolah with me for her trouble. This woman is unbelievable, her heart as pure as they come and a gorgeous little herd of Nigerians to boot. Thank you to everyone that so graciously helped out a newbie and stranger. My only concern is that of my girls, Izzy and Pipp. Elaine

De-lurking to share my lasagna gardening experience, hi everyone! I have done lasagna gardening for 2 years now with great results, each time creating the bed and then planting within a week (moved the winter after I started the first lasagna beds). I have had good luck with this method and plant right away, but I add compost and worm castings along with coir so there is a soil like consistency. I cover with a layer of mulch and just pull back the mulch to plant in the top layer of castings/coir. Next time, I'm going to leave my things like lettuce uncovered by mulch until they germinate for a little easier germination. Didn't think of that until after mulching this year. I put down cardboard or newspaper first and then thin layers of coir, straw, soaked alfalfa pellets, compost and castings. I've had bad luck with grass clippings so I no longer add them - my first year there was a lot of grass happily growing among my veggies. My beds that I created in late April/early May are very nicely broken down and look like really rich soil, still very fluffy and loose. The plants roots stay mainly above the bed but mine are mounded up at least 12 inches to start so it's much like a raised bed. I just 2 days ago added another bed to my yard - being organized enough to do this in fall instead of spring for the first time ever! I used composted horse manure, leaves, straw, soaked alfalfa pellets, worm castings, coir and my own compost pile from the last 10 months. I also topped off the existing bed. The new bed is about 18 inches. I'm planning on adding worm castings and compost again in the spring before planting, but I'm excited about everything getting a little broken down in advance this time. This is also the first time I've had leaves available to put in the beds because before I was always doing this in spring. Almost forgot, I supplement my beds with Epsoma products - Garden Tone and Tomato Tone. To the original poster, I would suggest adding some compost or castings to your layers of UCG and leaves. I think you'll be fine with what you've got but I find the straw also helps break up the mass of leaves so they don't clump so much. Good luck!

Violet, Most of what you post about sounds like stuff I would LOVE to participate and get into... but of course I live very far away. I'm SURE there's stuff going around in my neck of the woods, but am unsure of how find out information on it. Got any advice for me? I've searched on the web but am having trouble finding anything! Thanks for your help! Beth

I think you are wise to make it simple. That menu you described in your first post... sounds like more than $2/person. Someone was forking out some bucks from their own pocket to cover that! I've been involved with a project that required feeding about 200 people twice a day for a week. But our situation was different, we didn't have to travel with the food. The fact that you need to travel with the food is another reason to keep it simple. Lately I volunteer to prepare food for gymnastics events (three meals a day for about 30 people all weekend). But I don't plan the menu. I just do what I'm told. ;o) Knowing teens, I second the pizza! It's so easy to find a chain location in the town you're traveling to that will DELIVER the pizzas to the site. That's be my kind of plan! If you call ahead, they can probably give you one heck of a deal, too. Prepare small bags of fresh fruit and/or vegies to serve with it. Kept in a cooler, they can just be pulled out for each meal or available for snacks. When I take sliced oranges to my kids' events, they are gone fast. I'd have lots of fresh fruits that keep available, apples, bananas. These are teens, I'd find easy foods they like, with nutrition also a priority, and convenience and cost, but NO priority on the themed menues fit for a wedding reception. Chili is good with toppings each kid can fix it up the way they like. Maybe baked potatoes. You could load the oven up with those and have a lot easy. Individually wrapped in foil and kept in a cooler for hot food, they'd be good a while, wouldn't they? Serve with choices of toppings. Next to pizza, my teen likes baked potato bars. Different flavored chicken wings- kids love those. I'm curious how this works out for you, too. I'm sure the majority of your booster parents will agree: keep it simple. There are always a couple who like to show off, but speak up for common sense and I bet the majority will back you. I was in a marching band that traveled to competitions like that. Leaving at 0.early and arriving home very late. It was the best time, I loved every minute of it! What committed parents to organize good food for the kids! I wish I was going!