Boughshire Dale

Penny's New Babies

2011-04-01T09:52:00.001-05:00

Penny had two little girls yesterday morning. Sweet littl'uns!

Penny's New Babies

2011-04-01T09:22:00.000-05:00

Penny had two little girls yesterday morning. Sweet littl'uns!

2010-09-10T18:09:00.012-05:00

I've read articles about how you could use pigs to till up an area prior to making a garden. I've also read articles about "Pastured Pork" being the greatest thing since sliced ham. (See what I did there?) Because the pastured pork people also talk about running cows and pigs and goats all together, then I would assume that the pastured piggies don't tear up the grass. I've never been able to wrap my brain around those two disparate premises. (Just throwing out some big-ish words to counteract the redneck image with which we're increasingly becoming associated.)

Experimentation was in order!

The area that houses the pigs is approximately 40 feet by 60 feet. It also includes a little pig house (sticks, not bricks unfortunately, but with built-in Big Bad Wolf alarms) that is about 10' by 6'. It took around 30 days to turn the area from this:

To this:

That's some definite pork plowing power!

The minute we put the pigs in the pen, they had snouts to the ground, looking for buried treasure in the form of acorns, grubs, roots and whatever else they could find.

When they're not rooting in it, they're rolling around in it.

Raising pigs has been an interesting adventure. First off, they're creepy smart; there's no fooling them by hiding a bucket behind your back or attempting to distract them by waving one hand and grabbing them with the other. They're all like, "Hmmph, seriously?"

And they're fast! I don't mean like "deer leaping" fast, I mean more like a '69 428 Cobra Jet. Don't expect to do a goat-style feint/grab to catch a pig. Forget the "greased" part, I couldn't even grab one that wasn't slippery!

They're also very tricksy. Look at this little red piglet. Doesn't she look sweet?

And shy?

She's a stone cold witch. Truly. She's always fighting around the food pan and nipping ankles to get us to hurry up with the clabber* bucket. I don't think I'll go into the pig pen after she gets much bigger.

Although the two girls are a bit stand-offish, the boy loves him some scritches. Some fast fingernails along the back make him start to grunt in ecstacy and go weak at the knees. Eventually he just can't hold himself up any longer and flops on his side so you can scratch his belly. All the time with a huge smile on his face. I've found that scritches are the way to just about any animal's heart. Even the wildest goat baby can be brought around if you can just get some scritch time. It works on husbands too.

The water hose was a huge hit during the hotter days of late August. What started out as routine cleaning of the water trough became a pig party remniscent of when the fire hydrant was somehow opened on your street when you were a kid. The pigs would run up and shove their faces in the water hose then make a hysterical, "Eee...Eee...Eee!" sound, then run away. They'd come back for more over and over again. I even saw one push another one into the hose spray when she wasn't ready, and then laugh about it! I think if we had turned the hose off sooner they'd have thrown temper tantrums.

But mostly it's all about the food for the porcine pranksters. Although they run up eagerly to greet us when we walk down or even drive past, they quickly lose interest if there's nothing in it for them. They're not a lovey animal, but they sure are a funny one!

I suppose in the end it's all about the food for me too. Ham is good. And bacon... 'nuff said. But it's good that they're having a happy and healthy life which eases my conscience a little because I know the stuff in the foam trays and plastic wrap at the store didn't have anywhere NEAR as good.

* In addition to a bagged pig feed and vegetable peelings and watermelon rinds and the 15,734th zucchini from the garden and whatnot, we also feed about two gallons of "clabber" every other day or so. This is just milk in a 5 gallon bucket that I pour a few ounces of either yogurt or buttermilk into to culture it into something a little less liquid. We get 3 to 5 gallons of milk a day from the cow and goats, and the pigs have been a great way to magically turn the excess milk into bacon. The chickens also get some clabber, which then turns into eggs. Abracadabra! Breakfast!

P.S. All alliteration (oops) in this post was entirely coincidental. There are apparently lots of words that start with P. (Ok, except for one intentional groaner. Cookies if you guess which one.)

This little piggy went to...

2010-08-08T09:48:00.002-05:00

We finally went ahead and got some piggies, after having some home grown pork last year (we bought a pig already butchered from a friend) we knew we had to raise some of our own. We've had the pen for them since we moved in but we just always kept delaying getting them for some reason or other, Now with the abundance of milk were getting from the cow and goats we thought hey we can feed a lot of this milk to pigs why don't we get some and that's what we did.

Our Pork Mafia

Immaculate Lactation

2010-05-05T22:02:00.003-05:00

About a month or so ago we noticed that Buttercup's udder was enlarging. We also noticed that Buttons was making a little udder too. That typically means pregnancy - we were very excited!

Buttons' little udder:

A couple of days after this observation, we were out in the pasture with the cows and Buttercup had milk streaming from her udder. This usually not only means pregnancy, but very near to calving time. We hadn't noticed anything at all out of the ordinary besides the udder enlargement from either cow. Both still seemed to be going into heat, and no swelling bellies had been observed.

So - we drew some blood to send in for a pregnancy test. This isn't nearly as hard or freaky as it sounds. I did it without even getting scared, which says a lot. The blood gets drawn from the underside of the tail, and we used "vacutainer" tubes that use vacuum pressure to basically automatically draw blood as soon as you stick the needle in. I'll admit my hands were shaking a little bit, but I got the blood drawn without a problem. My hands shook even more waiting the three days for the pregnancy tests to come back.

When we got the tests back, we got quite a shock. NOT PREGNANT! ????!!!!???? Then why are they making milk? I posted on a few forums and got some possible reasons.

One possibility is that the bull, or the heifer, or - god forbid - the donkey is sucking on their udders and causing them to make milk. We watch these cows a lot - I have not seen any evidence of that happening. Plus, none of their teats look like they've been sucked on. They're still dry and crinkly with no cow (or donkey) spit anywhere to be found.

Another thing that can cause a non-pregnant cow to come into milk is very very excellent lush pasture. Our pasture is crap. We can safely rule this one out.

Another possibility is that they were pregnant, but miscarried at some point. I don't have a way to know if this was the case or not. It would be awfully coincidental that they both lost calves, but I suppose it could happen. Plus to have been at the stage where there was milk streaming from the cow and any sort of udder on the heifer, I think we would have seen some evidence of this. I am very worried that this was the reason because it would mean we're doing something very wrong. I've gone over our management practices with a fine tooth comb and I just don't see anything that could have caused this.

So - it's quite a puzzle. Buttons udder is nowhere near big enough to actually have milk in it, so we'll be leaving her alone. We'll keep monitoring her heat cycles and pregnancy testing 30 days after any missed heat. If she doesn't get pregnant soon, the bull is going to freezer camp and we'll try artificial insemination on her.

But as they say: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade - or cheese, butter, ice cream and chocolate milk in this case.

SO - we're milking Buttercup. She's giving us a gallon in the morning and a gallon in the evening and her production is rising steadily. She's having a problem with her left two quarters - they're not milking quite right. We're working on that with massages and hot compresses and it's getting better, but we're not keeping the milk from them. Once we get those problems worked out, I'd bet she starts giving well over three gallons per day. Woo hoo!

Buttercup and Craig have always had a special bond, but now they're just getting stupid. She waits at the gate for him to come get her and take her to the barn.

She looks lovingly at him while he milks. He says, "Move your foot, dahling" and she does exactly that. If I'm milking she runs away, gives me dirty looks, shifts around constantly and does everything she can to block my access to her udder. Good thing Craig really loves to milk!

While I'm sad that there won't be any calves to love on, and worried about what's really going on, I'm thankful for the holy grail of farm life - the bucket of sweet fresh milk from a cow whose feeding and care we have control of, that I know isn't being pumped full of antibiotics and hormones. I feel good about feeding it to my family. Check out that cream line - butter, baby!

2010 Kids so far

2010-04-30T21:28:00.005-05:00

We still have one Boer mama and 3 Nubians still to give birth, but we currently have a total of 18 kids on the ground and doing very very well. Not a single loss this year, which is fantastic!

Ruby had 1 buck and 1 doe on February 6th (Mo was difficult to keep in his pen this year!)
Artie had 1 buck on April 1st.
Feisty had 1 buck and 1 doe on April 3rd.
Flag had 2 bucks and 1 doe on April 9th.
Angel had 1 buck and 2 does on April 13th.
Emerald had 2 (huge) bucks on April 14th.
Dot had 2 bucks and 1 doe on April 14th.
The new (wild and ornery) Nubian, Athena, had 2 bucks on April 15th.

Three sets of triplets this year! We know that Dot can raise triplets because she did last year. We also know that Angel can't raise triplets. Flag, I just don't know about. But to be on the safe side, we pulled one of Flag's babies (Muffin) and one of Angel's babies (Minnie) to raise as bottle babies. They were in the house for a little while until we got them used to taking the bottle - they're now safely ensconced in the barn and I don't have to deal with cleaning up after them.

This is Minnie, one of Angels trips. She is absolutely tiny and adorable!

Here's one of Athena's boys:

This is one of Dot's boys, Patches. I love the one white ear and one brown ear.

Minnie and Muffin like to perch on Craig for an afternoon nap:

Flag gets picked to be kid-sitter while the moms graze in the pasture.

Minnie chose Jake as a surrogate mom while she was in the house. I don't think he minded.

Emerald's boys are gigantic:

The other Athena boy. It's kind of nice to have different colored kids running around.

Jake Babysits

2010-04-23T13:50:00.003-05:00

We had two Boer babies from two sets of triplets that we brought into the house for a couple of days. The tiniest baby, Minnie (3.8 pounds!) absolutely fell in love with Jake, our lab/Great Dane mix. He wasn't quite sure what to think of her, but eventually he came around.

That'll do, donkey

2009-11-28T08:49:00.008-06:00

It's been a while since we've blogged. New job, winter preparations and lots of school functions - you know the drill. But, we have many stories to tell you, so we'll just jump back in the game.

In mid-July, Maddy saved her pennies and bought herself a donkey. For a whopping 40 bucks and some hard labor loading him into the trailer, she brought home a scruffy little guy that we named Don Quixote. We call him Don Qui for short. He spent a couple of weeks at Mom and Dad's in the round pen being castrated, wormed and semi-tamed.

After he healed from his operation, we brought him out to the farm and put him in the maximum security isolation chamber (ok, an old stock trailer frame with a tarp on the top) so that he and the other critters could get used to each other without being able to tap into the fight side of "fight or flight". He didn't spend long in there before Maddy coaxed him out with a few oats.

A hug for reassurance and he's golden.

The Boers came to investigate and were initially interested in donkey, but being goats they are easily distracted by food.

The cow girls gave a disdainful glance his way and resumed chomping. This aloofness was all for show, as they did spend the rest of the day following Donqui around while ignoring him at the same time. It's a skill only a cow can perfect.

The Nubians were petrified and spent most of the time hiding behind us and screaming. Which isn't really out of the ordinary for the Nubes.

The expected major drama of integrating him into the motley herd never really played out, and Donqui settled in to grazing with the rest.

There was one incident later that day that almost caused me to lose my cool. (Yeah, I'm so known for my "cool"). I had gone out to the back of the big pasture to find Donqui for a little bit of brushing, bonding and lead training. I didn't realize it at the time, but Jake (Lab/Great Dane mix) had managed to squeeze through gate after I had already traipsed across the field and was making a bee line to me. Abby (Great Pyrenees) doesn't really like it when Jake is in her field, so she was loping after him. Jack (Great Pyrenees/Corgi mix (don't ask)) saw two other dogs running and figured there must be some great adventure happening so he was chasing after both of them. Donkeys in general despise dogs and much prefer fight to flight. This is something I wish I had known before I left the gate unlatched at the bottom.

Donkey saw what he interpreted as a pack of wild dogs heading straight for him at top speed and assumed a fighting stance. He let out a series of ear-splitting hee-haws, which are much more formidable sounding in person than cartoon donkey hee haws. This brought all the goats and all the cows running over to see what the heck was going on. So now I'm waaaaaay in the back of the pasture, alone, with 40 or so critters with a combined weight of around two and a half tons running straight at me, three freaked out giant dogs and one very angry donkey. And me without a stick, whip or self-defense weapon of any kind. Kinda scary. Donqui ran off all the dogs, who were absolutely gob-smacked by an animal that didn't run from them but ran AT them. Donqui's pretty impressive when he goes into fighting mode. Head down, ears back, teeth bared and hooves ready to kick at any moment. After my heart rate slowed, I managed to drag Jake out of the field and made a mental note to remember to latch the gate at the top and bottom in the future.

It seems to be taking Donqui quite a bit longer than a horse to pick up his training cues. He will certainly follow Maddy anywhere, though. Must be all the hugs.

He has adjusted a bit to the lead rope, as long as there are oats involved.

And he's leading much better.

I hate having that old nylon halter on him all the time because I'm worried about him getting tangled up in something and getting hurt. So I thought I'd introduce a rope halter that I could use for training time.

Yeah.. no. For a little guy he's pretty strong.

After some Clinton Anderson-style approach and release, he'll tolerate me holding the halter by his head. I still can't get it on him, but we'll keep trying.

I think he likes us, and we certainly love him. But all in all, he'd rather just be hanging out with the cows.

Bovine Mobile Home

2009-11-04T09:33:00.000-06:00

We didn't think far enough ahead when we built the cow shed, and the site we chose ended up being a giant mud hole after each and every rain. In addition to being nearly impassible with boot-sucking mud during feeding time, all the muck isn't very healthy for the cows.

So - we had to move the barn. To accomplish this, we decided to make some skids out of cedar logs, attach them under the posts of the barn and pull the whole kit and caboodle to high ground with the tractor. Although plenty of people scoffed, the plan worked perfectly.

We selected fairly straight logs and got them ready to cut:

Then we cut an angle on each end to make sled runners, basically:

It didn't take much of an angle to keep the log from just digging into the ground:

We trimmed off any knots or high spots. We only needed three skids to go under the six posts on the shed:

Once we had the posts out to the field, we measured then shaved off flat spots where the posts from the shed would sit. We had cut the posts off at ground level.

Safety second:

We also cut a notch in the end of the log so that we could attach the chain:

With the help of the tractor, we lifted the shed up and slid the skid underneath:

Some assistance from the jack was also required:

It took some finagling, but we finally got the skids into place:

Oops, now we're coming apart at the seams:

The Nubians were always ready to give us advice:

Applying service patch 1:

Some time (and cussing) later, all the skids were in place.

Then we attached chains to each of the skids and then back to the tractor:

Except for one mudhole that had to be navigated, the actual pull was very uneventful. Randy even had time for some pasture texting:

The tractor worked wonderfully:

Finally the shed is on its new, and hopefully less muddy, site:

We anchored the shed by driving T-posts into the ground by each post and tying the T-posts to the wood posts. Otherwise the shed would have become a giant parasail during any high winds. I don't think the cows would be very fond of parasailing. They're definitely "feet on the ground" kinds of critters.

Whoops!

2009-08-19T18:15:00.002-05:00

Ok, so a few more than two!

Libby's babies

2009-08-17T21:16:00.003-05:00

Libby brought her babies out from under the house today. There are only two and they're as cute as, well, kittens.

The dreams that you dare to dream

2009-08-17T21:12:00.003-05:00

Some days just make you go ahhhhhh.

Workin' Goats

2009-06-07T22:42:00.007-05:00

The Boer goat herd is very self-sufficient herd of goats. They get some grain once a day and fresh water, but other than that there's really not much to them this time of year. Of course, I spend a whole lot of time out there, but that's to cuddle babies, not "manage the livestock".

Once a month, though, we do spend a day "workin' the goats". I remember when we were going through the process to buy this place and Steve called and asked if we wanted to come "work the goats" with him. We were STOKED!! Of course we wanted to come work the goats! I remember that now and giggle a little bit at how cute and naive we were. It's hard work. Hot work. Painful, smelly and difficult work. The next day you feel as if you've been trampled by a herd of bison and drug through the mud. That's because basically you have been.

Today was the day for this month's goat rodeo. Sounds like a good time for a blogumentary.

"Workin' the Goats" consists of pedicures for all the goats, vaccinations when appropriate, worming when indicated (which is usually), a general health check and gathering poo berries for fecal exams. (I'll spare you any photos of poo.)

The goat yard layout is fantastic. There are two penned areas, one of which contains a "hitchin' post" and a shelf. The necessary supplies are gathered and laid out on this shelf to be within easy reach. In addition to frosty beverages, the supplies are, from left to right (skipping the thermos lid): CD&T vaccination bottle, an old coffee can of grain (for luring and catching goats until they wise up and figure out our tricks), a goat weigh tape, a notebook and pen to write down weights and anything we want to remember about the health and well-being of each goat, a jug of wormer (which is so expensive that I'm freaked out that it's going to fall off the shelf and spill), a rag-wrapped bottle of stinky messy Koppertox, and a drencher used to give the wormer. What you don't see in this photo (probably because they're scattered around on the ground after being tossed to catch a goat about to bolt away) is a pair of hoof trimmers, a hoof pick, a stiff brush and a rasp.

To get started, we pick up the goat's hoof and begin to trim. BWAH HA HA HA HA!!! The only goat in the whole wide world who is going to let you just pick up her hoof like Craig's doing in the photo below is Ruby...and that's only until she finishes the grain in the pan in front of her. If Craig still has hold of her hoof once she's done with that grain, she'll kick her leg with the power of 10 mules about 50 times real fast so that she jerks her foot away then flop down on her belly, tuck her feet under herself and look at you condescendingly. Ask me how I know.

In real life, we tie the goats to the hitchin' post with a rope around their horns. It doesn't hurt them. They certainly don't dig it, but it doesn't hurt. Here's Angel assuming the position. She looks horrible, I know. Normally she's not so incredibly thin, but she's nursing greedy babies and she definitely "milks off her back" as they say in the cow industry. Once she weans those babies she's back in top condition quickly. She really does get plenty to eat, I promise.

The position for doing baby hooves is quite a bit different. Usually to work the babies one person straddles and restrains and the other checks and trims the hooves. "Straddle" doesn't mean sit on them, mind you - that would be bad. Rather, you just squeeze your knees together and pretend that your super power is "form of... a squeeze chute!" Most of this year's babies are really tame (thank you, I've worked hard on that!), so one person can handle them.

Here's Elvis having his back feet done. (Pardon me for saying so, but that's an impressive set of jewels. He may have to keep those and become a daddy!)

And his front hooves:

I think Elvis actually enjoyed his pedicure. He wanted to pose for a photo when he was done. My goodness he's a good looking boy! The goats who haven't yet had their mani/pedi are waiting in the other side of the pen for their turn.

Here's a photo of a hoof before it's been trimmed. This has been a really rough season for goat hooves. It's been so wet that the hooves have stayed softer and haven't gotten the normal amount of wear from daily romping around. The rain and wet also causes some problems with "foot rot" that we have to keep an eye on.

Craig starts out his trimming by cutting the "sidewalls" of the hoof. There are two different "parts" of the hoof, a hard outer "sidewall", and a rubbery "insole". I just realized that there may actually be names for those hoof parts instead of the names we call them. If so, I dunno what they are, so I'll stick with "sidewall" and "insole".

The sidewall seems to me to be kind of like fingernails. As it grows longer, they walk on it and it folds over the insole. This has to be trimmed off. We just slide the trimmers under the folded over part and clip it off - just like cutting your fingernails with scissors.

Then the insole is also trimmed. It can actually get too long and fold over as well. That's bad. It has a "quick" just like our fingers and dog claws. And if you cut past the quick it hurts and bleeds and you end up getting kicked and screamed at. I can't stand it, so we make sure to stop if we see the slightest bit of pink. Sometimes we do accidentally cut too deep and make them bleed, but we sure try not to. I can't really describe the texture of the insole. It's kind of meaty, but firmer than meat. It's white unless you trim it too far.

The hooves should be trimmed so that they are parallel to the "coronet band", which is just a fancy way to say "the top of the hoof". Here Craig moves the foot hair out of the way to make sure that both the heel and toe are parallel to the top of the hoof. It's really easy to leave the toes too long or make the heels too short. This rocks the goat back on its heels which makes for weak ankles and stiff legs.

Angel waits patiently-ish for us to get done with her hooves. I sneak them some grain niblets every now and then while they have to stand tied. Poor things.

After the hoof has been thoroughly trimmed, it gets rasped to level it off and smooth it out. The goats hate this part. So does Craig because he's constantly rasping the skin off his knuckles. I try not to giggle, but he knows some really funny cuss words.

When the hooves are all done, the bottoms will be totally white. This goat is having some problems with foot rot, but we were about to make her bleed so we had to stop right here. This will get noted and we'll follow up with her frequently and trim more off a little at a time until we get her back in shape.

After the hooves are done they get coated with Koppertox. Koppertox is sticky, smelly and very messy. I've been wracking my brain trying to describe the smell, but words are failing me. It smells like wet copper that's dusty. Sort of a musty metallic smell. And it's very strong. You can still smell it on your skin after washing several times. Goat-workin' clothes have to go straight into the washing machine or the whole house will smell like Koppertox. And it stains everything. Moral: don't wear good clothes when you're workin' the goats. Koppertox is a fungicide, so it's great for foot rot. It's also like a liquid bandage to keep stuff out of any nicks.

Once the hooves are all done, it's vaccination time. Of course, we only vaccinate when it's appropriate. The babies get a course of three injections, and then all goats get an annual booster. We use an industry-standard "CD&T" shot, which is basically a Tetanus and Enterotoxemia vaccine. There are several other vaccinations that could be given, but it seems to me like they are mostly to allow for poor management. I don't think that's very cool. (I love Craig's Koppertox stained fingernails in this photo - very punk!)

After everything is done, we give the goats a dose of wormer. This is dependent on the last fecal analysis, of course, but it usually needs to be done. I'll do another fecal about 14 days after this worming and make sure we're doing ok on parasite prevention. Once all of this is done, the goat gets turned out into the pasture. Then we go catch another goat (which is a great aerobic exercise!) and start all over again.

We started at 9 this morning and finished hot, sweaty, aching and smelling like copper at around 2:30. Did anyone see the herd of bison that just ran over me?

Penny and Pru Perform

2009-06-06T12:06:00.003-05:00

Each year our little town has a celebration called "Country Days". This year's theme was "Gettin' Down on the Farm". The Girl Scouts borrowed Penny and Prudence for their parade entry. We'd been working with the goat girls on their leads for a couple of weeks to make sure they'd do ok in the parade. BUT... once the parade got underway and moving, Penny and Pru were having none of it. Ever the troopers (get it?), the Girl Scouts put the stubborn goats on their float and carried on. It was cute to see all the town kids pet the goats! And don't they look sweet in the bandanas Tonica brought for them?

A Perfect Storm

2009-05-29T11:51:00.007-05:00

On May 15th we had what some have been calling a "land hurricane". I've seen a lot of storms in my day, but this was the worst one I'd ever personally experienced. The rain was falling in circles and the air was filled with shredded bits of leaves so that it looked like it was raining green. Totally wild. Because it has rained so much, the ground was saturated and soft, and the trees were coming up out of the ground by the roots. Along the creek that runs in front of our house we have (had) some gigantic cedar trees. I watched as two of these monsters literally lifted out of the ground and fell over. I'm not usually scared during storms, but I was getting a bit shaky during this one! Here are some pics of the aftermath.

Here are the cedars that fell over by the creek. The big one decided to take the front license plate of my car with it. Close call!

A closer pic of the biggest cedar:

Flooding under the little bridge that leads to the chicken house:

A walnut tree that fell in the chicken yard. Dad's going to come cut this one up for some woodworking projects:

The hickory tree where we boil water for chicken butchering. Looks like I'll have to set up a new processing area! We'll use this wood for smoking meats. Mmmm.. hickory!

This is the walnut tree that Craig used to use for target practice. Looks like the bullet holes weakened it enough to just break off. It was scheduled for removal anyway to make way for more orchard area.

The water that pours down off the mountainside tends to bottleneck by the fence, flooding the goat yard.

Then it fills up the granite pond then overflows, swelling that poor little creek:

The goat yard got quite a bit of flooding:

An oak tree and a hickory tree went down in the south part of the goat yard. The goats, being the optimists they are, just viewed them as a free buffet & playground:

Sweet Abby loved her task of babysitting while the goat moms went out to investigate the downed trees:

The giant cedar by the cattle gate lost a few of its lower limbs:

The creek across the road was WAY flooded. No power and no exit for a few days left us all pretty grumpy. :)

Ssssssssssnake!

2009-05-19T10:28:00.005-05:00

I hate snakes. There, I said it. I know - I'm supposed to love all the critters on this green earth. But... *shudder*... snakes creep me right on out. I had no idea I could scream that loudly!

The other day a speckled king snake took all the eggs from a runner duck nest. Yesterday I was moving a pile of brush and found a small copperhead. Earlier this month a snake was in a raised garden bed. Pat and I saw two snakes in the creek last week. GAH!!!

I don't mind black snakes so much, until they get in the hen house. If they can't content themselves with eating other snakes and start going for my eggs and chicks, then they have to become hiss-tory. (ha.. cracked myself up)

Today Craig dispatched a huge black snake that was in the chicken house. There's a couple chicks missing, so he had to go. Check it out:

Pardon the weeds in the flower bed, I can't pull them - there might be snakes in there!

Spring Crop

2009-05-15T12:43:00.003-05:00

All the rain this spring has prevented us from doing much in the way of gardening just yet. We did manage to get a lovely little pyramid bed installed.

First, we removed the sod from a 6 foot circle:

Then, we dug the soil fairly deep and raked the seedbed fine:

Then, we installed a metal ring around the bed:

Next we filled that metal ring with some well-aged compost and ran the water hose to the middle:

Now the middle ring is in place, hose ran and compost started. After this, the top ring will be installed and filled as well, and the hose will run to the top.

After all our hard work and weeks of waiting, the crop looks to be ready to harvest!

Kidding Season is Over - Finally

2009-04-22T14:19:00.007-05:00

Emerald had her baby today marking the end of kidding season, thank goodness. It was exhausting, exhilarating, happy and heartbreaking all at the same time. We learned several lessons that I wish we hadn't had to learn the hard way, and we'll do several things differently next year. We ended up with a total of 9 doelings and 3 bucklings and should have done much better. We lost 2 doelings and a buckling and had one stillborn baby of undetermined gender.

Angel was first on March 23 with 2 doelings and a buckling. We lost Eve because she just wasn't getting enough milk from mom. She couldn't compete with the other two babies for ninny. I tried bottling, but by the time I realized she needed supplementing, she would have nothing to do with the bottle. I syringed milk down her as often as I could, but I guess it just wasn't enough. That ripped my heart right out. Next year only does with four working teats will get to keep any multiples above twins. Or - bottle supplementation will have to start for all multiples over two from day one so that the bottle doesn't get refused. Elvis and Edna are doing wonderfully and are both HUGE. Edna has been chosen to be a replacement doe for our herd. She's very beautiful.

Ruby had two boys on March 28th. One buckling died the first night. Ruby's teats were really swollen and I think the babies couldn't get their mouths around them, so they had no warm milk on a cold night. I had milked a bottle out of Ruby earlier that day and bottled some colostrum down them, but I guess it wasn't enough. The other boy wasn't breathing, but I heard a heartbeat... so I blew a couple of times in his nose/mouth and he gave a big gasp. I took him in and his temp was 94... hypothermia, poor little guy. I put him in a trash bag (with his head sticking out) and then into my canner full of hot water. Then I took him into the laundry room and kept swapping out hot towels to get his temp up. I'm not sure what I can do to prevent that next year. I don't think I'm going to breed Ruby next year. She's 10 years old and had a pretty hard time this year.

April freaked out this year and ran out to the field on March 29th and had her babies in a creek near the pond. One was stillborn as mentioned earlier. She had left the living baby in the water while trying to get the stillborn one to get up. Craig brought the live (barely) doeling inside and we sat in front of the dryer with hot towels to get her warmed up. She wasn't registering any temperature at all, which is normally a death sentence for goats. So at this point I have two half-dead babies in the laundry room and am in tears because I'm absolutely sucking as a goat farmer. We had previously milked some colostrum from Ruby and fed this to both April's little girl and Ruby's little boy. The babies were much better by around 7 that evening, but I kept them both inside in the bathtub for the night and gave them BoSe shots. When we took them both out the next day, I guess little May smelled like Ruby from drinking Ruby's colostrum, so April wouldn't have anything to do with her. Ruby took her without blinking an eye, though, and all is well. Poor April hollered for days looking for her missing babies. That was heartbreaking.

Horton (Ruby's) and May (April's)

Feisty also had her baby on March 29th. She was running around the yard SCREAMING at the top of her lungs, then plopped out a baby girl into a mud puddle. She looked at me like, "what the HELL????", so I grabbed the baby and one of Feisty's horns, kicked Ruby out with my third hand and put Feisty and the baby into one of the two freaking kidding stalls we have available because I HAD to get Nubian babies to take up the other side, didn't I? Feisty freaked out totally... why in the world did she have to let that cold wet thing crawl under her??!!!??? Then, the baby let out a little bleat and she melted. She started talking to it (non-stop) and licking it... then everything was cool. The little cutie has very curly hair, so her name is Curly. (Hey, give me a break - it's been a long however many days at this point.) Before Feisty was pregnant she was, well, feisty. Her baby is doubly so. She refuses to go where mama wants her to go and does whatever she darn well pleases at all times. While the other mamas are placidly grazing with their babes following along behind, Feisty is stuck following her headstrong little girl around the yard hollering at her. She deserves this kid.

Feisty and Curly

On March 30th, Artie had two beautiful little doelings. She wasn't in a kidding stall because she showed no signs whatsoever of being this close, but she seemed to be doing fine. Artie is a very wild doe, and with this being her first year she was even more freaked out. We tried to keep our distance and just sit in the goat yard and watch. But - after about 30 minutes of labor it was obvious that things just weren't progressing. We could see a head, but no hooves. The baby's legs were tucked backwards and it just wasn't going to happen. So, we needed to help. Artie, however, had other ideas and wasn't going to let us catch her. We were chasing her around the goat yard and there was this little head hanging out her hoo-ha bouncing around. It was creepy, funny and nerve-wracking all at the same time. We finally caught her and Craig "went in" and pulled the baby out. We kicked Feisty and Curly out of the kidding stall and popped Artie in. The second doeling was properly presented and all went well. They are pretty little girls. They had some problems with pink eye, but that's all cleared up now.

Artie and her girls

On April 1st, Flag had a little buckling and a little doeling. Flag's udder is absolutely horrid. It was dragging the ground by the time she delivered. She wasn't supposed to be bred this year, but somehow managed to get her some through the fence during the couple of hours that we had her penned next to the main goat yard, the little tart. Needless to say, the babies had severe trouble nursing. Flag's boy was quite willing to be shown how to drop his head lower to nurse than he instinctually wanted to, but the little girl was stubborn and refused to nurse. She also had some lung problems and just didn't make it. I tried to revive her and bottle feed her, but I was too late. Flag's Boy (that seems to be his name) is something else. He's extremely friendly and likes nothing better than to jump onto my lap (and back, and head) every time I sit out in the goat yard. I come in covered in tiny little muddy hoof prints every day.

Flag's Boy Climbing Me...Again

Dot had triplet girls on April 2nd. I've named them Faylana, Brenwyn and Kitcha. I may just have to keep them as well. Dot is a very good mama and has four working teats, so she's feeding the trio with no problems whatsoever. Dot's girls are screamers. They scream when they're lost, they scream when they're hungry, they scream even when they're eating and they scream when you look at them. They'll be difficult to tame down, I think, but we'll figure that out eventually.

Faylana, Brenwyn and Kitcha

Emerald rounded up the season on April 22nd with a very very beautiful single little girl. She's the prettiest of them all. The birth went like clockwork and she was healthy and happy with no problems. We've named her Holly after Craig's friend Lance's lass. (I hope the real Holly doesn't get upset with us!)

Holly

All in all things went ok, although they went much better as we got a little more experience. It was highly stressful and there are many things that I wish I could have done differently. We will do it right next year!

You should all come out and see the babies!

Kid Vid

2009-04-02T19:41:00.003-05:00

There is nothing cuter in the world than a baby goat.

One more mom left to go (although I'm now wondering if she's actually pregnant); current count: 10 girls, 3 boys. Phew!

Too cute not to post!

2009-03-30T17:35:00.003-05:00

Just a quick post of a picture that HAS to be shared. From left to right: Edna, Eve & Elvis - Angel's babies.

We're in full kidding swing, both good times and bad times - more on that later.
Total babies so far, 6 doelings, 2 bucklings. Three moms left to deliver. I'll be glad when they're all done!

More Babies!

2009-03-28T13:12:00.003-05:00

Ruby had her babies this morning, finally! We've thought for almost a week that "today would be the day". Of course, she waited until it got chilly and the rain started pouring down. Contrary old thing.

The two little bucklings are doing well, but still having a bit of trouble figuring out where the milk comes from. Ruby's udder is pretty swollen, so I'll go out and milk her a bit and see if I can relieve the pressure. It's always good to have some frozen colostrum on hand anyway.

Hello, World!

2009-03-23T10:45:00.004-05:00

This morning brought three beautiful little surprises. Two little girl surprises and a little boy surprise. The two little does are in the back against the cattle panel and the buckling is closest to the camera. They're gorgeous - Angel (the mama (maa-maa?)) always has beautiful babies.

This "lazy nursing" move needs to be patented!

The little boy, however, is quite willing to get up for some ninny!

What a great way to start the morning! Expect more pictures over the next week or so as the rest of the moms have their kids!

Unstuck by Truck

2009-03-22T19:14:00.004-05:00

Craig took the tractor to scoop poo out of the field about three weeks ago. The mud beside the cow shed apparently resented his efforts to drive out there. Here was the result:

We tried several methods to get the tractor out of the field. We put boards under the bucket and tried to climb out of the mudhole using the bucket. No joy. We tried to pull it out with Craig's truck. No joy, and we almost got the truck stuck. Then we tried rigging up a "come-along" with some chains to pull it out. I swear I heard the mud snickering at us.

Today, Dad and my brother Aaron came over to lend a hand. We cut the fence behind the tractor, then chained Aaron's Suburban to the tractor and Craig's truck to Aaron's truck. Little by little, the tractor came loose from the sucking (in more ways than one) mud. Yay!

Here they are, the tractor saving trio!

Now to fix the gaping hole left in the field by old Allis.

Spring is Here!

2009-03-20T19:37:00.000-05:00

Spring is getting here. After the months of cold, nothing could be more welcome.

The daffodils are blooming.

The redbud trees are budding.

The hens are out of the coops and loving it!

The geese are happy on the pond.

The creek is running with clear sweet water.

Cagney is nesting, with Starsky standing guard.

I love spring.

Lucy Goosey

2009-03-06T17:23:00.004-06:00

Even though the chicks are done hatching I'm still not over my incubator addiction. I've been spying on Mama Goose and she's been laying an egg a day for a few days in her normal spot. You don't really have to be James Bond to spy on Mama laying, because her fearless mate tends to stand around and honk at the top of his lungs. I'm not sure if he's trying to keep people away or if he's smart-mouthing her since she's too busy to shut him up. I've dated guys like that.

Anyhoo - I stole her eggs and have put them in the incubator. Fear not, she's still laying eggs, it's just that she's never successful at hatching them so I thought I'd give it a go. So - six goose eggs in the 'bator today! She can hatch the rest.

Goose eggs are huge. And tasty. But I'm all about the goslings with these eggs, so omelets will have to wait. Check out the size of these eggs! That's a regular chicken egg next to it. Probably an "extra large" sized egg.

I suppose you're wondering what that "M" is on that egg in my hand. Well... my friend Becki has several "knacks", one of which is telling the sex of a goose egg with a wedding ring and a string. You suspend the ring and hold it still. The ring will eventually begin to swing over the egg. If it swings back and forth, it's a male. If it swings around in circles it's a female.

From our results it looks like there will be 4 males and 2 females. Mind you, I "ring sexed" two of these and I'm not knacky. Becki may need to come double check my findings. When we're nearer to hatching I'll put a piece of cardboard in the incubator to keep the hatchees separate, then I'll band the legs of those two we think are females. Should be an interesting experiment.

All six are in the incubator and being turned 3 times a day. Starting March 10th, I'll be taking them out of the incubator for 15 minutes each day and misting them with water. That'll be a good time to candle them to see how the embryos are developing. I'll try to get some photos of the candling, but I'm not sure that I can. Watch this space around April 5th and we'll see how the hatching goes!