Next Sunday we will be showing Rita, Itty-Bitty and Choc-o-latte at the Oregon State Fair.
Today we starting prepping for it with a full body clipping for all my does.   In the past I've only done dairy or maternity clips, never the full body clipping necessary for showing.  So it was a new experience for everyone involved and the goats were less than impressed!

It was interesting to see some of the changes, for example Rita;s gold spots are more pronounced when she is clipped and her daughter Itty-Bitty is covered in spots!  I still need to get the #40 blade put on my clippers and get the close finishing work done on the three that will be shown next weekend, but the bulk of it is finished and I think they look pretty good for my first try.

Saturday night I had a coughing fit that ended with me screaming in agony from a burning pain at the base of my skull.    My first thought was I was having a stroke or aneurysm.  

Sunday morning I was feeling a little better and managed to stagger out to the barn with Bekah's help to get the milking done.   I'm sure if someone saw me all but crawling across the lawn to get to the barn they would have been thinking I was recovering from a hang-over.

I wasn't getting any better so Tuesday I went to see my doctor who ordered neck and chest x-rays because he thought I had pneumonia again.    Chest x-ray came back clear, and the neck x-ray only showed that I had arthritis in my neck so the pain was coming from a torn or sprained (i.e. whiplash) tendon or ligament and not a bulged disc.

On Wednesday the pain grew increasingly worse until I finally had my husband take me to urgent care.   The doctor there examined me and sent me over to ER where a CT scan was ordered.  I am happy to report they did find a brain in there! They also found several areas of sinus infection, but no bleeding on the brain.  

It took four rounds of pain and anti-nausea meds before I was finally able to return home.    The final diagnosis was a trifecta - a migraine triggered by the neck and sinus pain.    So now I am on antibotics and am hoping for relief from the sinus pressure in another day or two.    The neck will take 2-3 weeks to heal but hopefully I will have full functioning by the time we show on Labor Day weekend.  

Thanks to family and friends for watching the children for me and for getting the tattooing done that was needed for the show.    (The green ink on Itty-Bitty is from the tattoo's in her ears.)  I am so blessed to have all of your help!

As for the show, I still plan to attend and show the three goats in entered.   But I have lowered my expectations drastically in light of the fact that I will not be able to much if any training with the goats before hand.