Deep South Kikos News

Fried Snake

2012-02-24T09:00:00.001-06:00

The past couple of days we've been having extremely windy weather. When the winds pick up like they have been doing, it's not uncommon to find some limbs that have fallen on our electric fence. Last night when I went outside, I could hear the fence popping. It sounded like a small limb had landed on it somewhere in the pasture across the road. I made a mental note to go out in the morning and remove the limb.

This morning as I went to find where the limb was located on the fence; I quickly found out, that in fact, it had not been a limb touching the fence. This is what I found.......still popping each time the current pulsed down the wire.....

fried snake

Somehow this snake slithered up the fence just right and crossed over the electric wire and ended up getting zapped. I'm not sure what kind of snake it is, but a snake is a snake........I don't like any of them! So I had to proceed with a very looooong stick to remove it. I just shuddered having to think about it again...

Happy Friday Everybody! Have A Great Weekend! ( Now that you've seen a creepy snake photo :)

Feeding the LGDs

2012-02-22T09:56:00.000-06:00

Well, yesterday was the day for the monthly dog food "run". We get eight 50lb bags each month. We have 4 adult anatolian shepherds, 2 adult border collies, and 5 anatolian shepherd puppies to feed currently. Not many folks around here have LGD's and they don't understand why we would want to have an "extra" expense like that. Shane always tells them that our dogs are like employees here and they work really hard at protecting our livestock. We haven't had a loss due to predators since we have added them to our farm. The expense of having and feeding the LGD's is nothing in comparison with the peace of mind we have that knowing our livestock is protected from predators day and night. Our border collies are such a great asset too. They really make it easy to round up the goats or cattle when we need them to. It sure beats getting out there on foot and trying to do it. ( Boy those were the days!! ) Click here for an interesting article about Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGD's). It has a lot of information regarding LGD's.

While Shane was at work, we decided to unload the food ourselves. The young man below was a real good helper for the job. He even had his own dolly to use. Of course I had to load/unload the dolly for him, but it's nice to have the kids want to give a helping hand. Such valuable life lessons can be learned on helping out with the farm....at least I think so.

We store it in a metal box in our barn to keep the mice out of it. It seems to work real well.

Each pasture that we have our livestock guardian dogs in has a portable dog feeder. This particular one will hold a 50lb bag of food. This is real helpful with feeding them, because the food is always there and they can eat it whenever they get hungry. There is no competition like it was when we used to feed them in separate bowls every afternoon.

The cage surrounding it, keeps the goats from being able to eat the dog food, because they will do it. There are still one or two that have been able to figure out how to get in. I'm not sure if you can see the wire criss-crossed near the top of the cage, but that was used to make the opening smaller. Since that wire has been put there, I haven't observed any goats getting in. Before, the opening was large enough for 2 of our goats to get in. None of the others would even attempt it. You know how it is though, there's always one or two of "those kind" in a crowd :)

We pour the food in through the top of the feeder and the lid provides protection to keep out the rain (of course it has to be closed ;) However did have a problem with one of the animals figuring how to open it. One of our horses had figured out how to open the top and eat the dog food. He could really put some of that food away before we could catch him.

Now the top of the lid is secured with this strap. The horse hasn't gotten past that one yet. We also have 2 hooks on the back of the feeder and hang it slightly off of the ground....maybe about a good 6 inches. We noticed the fire ants would find it quite quickly when the feeder sat directly on the ground. They don't seem to get to it with it hanging up like that.

Caption for this photo, anyone?

2012-02-17T08:43:00.001-06:00

I was sitting out in the pasture the other day and this heifer came close to me for some close ups. Of course, the most clear of them all with her facing me, was this one. The kids laughed when they saw this picture, so of course I have to share.

What do you think would be a good caption for this photo? Comment below, or visit our facebook page to leave a comment. I'd love to see what you can come up with. Happy, happy, happy Friday everyone!

Puppy Love

2012-02-15T11:07:00.002-06:00

I had these photos stored on our computer with the intentions of sharing them a while back, but I kind of forgot to. So today, I am trying to get this whole thing rolled out. The quality isn't so great due to my camera, but I absolutely love the "love" being shared in the photos. We have Jael one of our anatolian LGD's in a pasture with some heifers and bucklings (young male goats). Jael has 3 pups out in this pasture with her "learning the ropes". I've been noticing that the heifers are really interested in checking out the puppies up close and personal.

We're talking, really up close and personal.

When they get close to the puppies, it seems so hard for them to resist giving those puppies some love. They (puppies) know it's coming so they just sit there and take it. You know, it's like that one aunt who comes for a visit only to walk in the door and pinch the little one's cheeks.

I've never seen any of our cows doing this. It may be just that the youngsters are curious about the puppies, but I found it to be so funny.

I love the look in this last picture.....the pup has a look about her that screams "Help! Will she please stop licking my ear!"

Happy Hump Day!

This Is How We Roll

2012-02-13T09:30:00.000-06:00

Or maybe I should've said, this is how we "un-roll"...... You'll see what I mean.

We've tried various ways to put out the hay for all of the animals; cows, goats, and horses. When we have all of them co-mingling in the same pasture, there is a problem with how they are able to eat together harmoniously. We have a rack that Shane made for the goats, but it is a little small for the cows and horses to be able to eat the hay. With the hay ring, the goats have the ability to climb right on top of the hay and make a mess on the whole bale for the rest of them.

So here's the solution to the problem. The hay is unrolled every other day in the pasture. Only enough hay is put out to last for 2 days, in order for them not to waste any. In the photo below, you will see all of the animals following the tractor across this particular field getting ready for some hay. You should see and hear all of the commotion when they hear that John Deere fire up. And boy can they move when they see it enter their pasture!

Below you will see Shane cutting the string from the bale in preparation to unroll it out in the pasture. You can also see those impatient critters running in to sneak a few bites before he can even get it unrolled.

He puts the bale down in the correct position so that when he "bumps" it with the spear on the front of the tractor, it will unroll (you know, kind of like cinnamon roll, or a pecan wheel ).

All of the animals scramble to get to a place where they can stand and munch on the hay. There's plenty of space due to it being rolled all the way out, so they don't have to all pile up in one spot to try to fight to get some. It works out rather nicely, I must say.

So there you have it.....That's how we roll :)

Fencing

2012-02-07T08:49:00.001-06:00

I had taken some photos of our fencing around here to show how we made our raggedy cattle fence keep in the goats. Anyone out there that has had experience with goats will tell you that they can manage to get out of just about any fence. I read in a book one time to throw a bucket of water at your fence; any place the water got through, so will the goat. We've learned many times how easy it is for a goat to end up on the other side of the fence. For the most part, we don't have any problems with them getting out when we have them in our "goat secured" pastures. We still have 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile of fence to make "goat proof".

The photo below has the existing fencing that has been on this farm for at least 40 years; minus the electric. We have places that has at least three layers of fence stacked on the top of each other. The barbed wire holds in the cattle well, even though it is pretty shot in a lot of places. The goats will step, jump, fly, or dance right on through that barbed wire. It will not hold them in. We now have insulators attached to the fence posts and have run one strand of hot wire near the bottom. They have total respect for that wire as long as the charger is putting out at least 2500 volts, our charger is on average 9000 volts so you can imagine. All it takes is just one little experience with it and they don't want to get near it again. We have been fortunate because many others say that the one strand won't do it for them. We have an insulator that is 10" and it seems to give the goats a little more stretch to get over and this seems to do the trick. We also like the 12 gauge high tensile wire for a couple of reasons, it's easier to see when riding the fence line, it will carry the current better and it will not break as easy.

fence-line

For the gate below, we have "goat proofed" this area with a braided rope-type strand stretched across the bottom of the gate. I think it was purchased at Premier. Here is a link to what it looks like.

"Goat proofed" gate

Just by putting the metal hook on the end of the insulated handle in contact with the "live wire" it causes the hole strand at the gate to become electrified. This keeps the goats from even trying to get through. This particular gate has a pretty good size opening under the bottom which would allow those critters to slide right under. With that strand stretched across there, they don't even look twice. You can even mount this type of electric gate up higher to stop those aggressive bucks from beating down your permanent metal gates. This will also help prevent those LGD's that like to climb, from climbing over metal gates.

Here is a closer look of the hook and how it is simply placed into the loop onto the existing hot wire just to make contact. If you will notice the black doughnut to the left that is suppose to be the connector for the electric gate. We happen to have a nice loop hole at the corner insulator that works fine so we don't use the connector that came with the electric gate.

This handle is insulated so you can grab it to move the electric gate in order to pull through the gate. Once you remove the hook the electric gate becomes dead and you can hang it on the metal gate as you open and close the gate.

This is how the other side of the rope is attached. It is looped through this plastic insulator that is screwed into the fence post. Pretty simple.

This month's Goat Rancher is devoted to fencing too (and farm facilities). I do believe they carry this magazine in Tractor Supply stores (you can even view it online). Click here to be taken directly to the Goat Rancher website to learn more. You will find lots of information here related to goats.

****Thanks to my hubby Shane for help with getting all of the correct information to you. I had him proof-read and add several things.****

"I Wish I Could Be A Horse"

2012-02-03T09:06:00.000-06:00

My sweet girl and I had a conversation yesterday that I had to share. She said, " Mom I really wish I could be a horse............ buuuuut.. ............. God wanted me to be human instead." She absolutely loves horses so much that she wishes she could have come to this Earth in the form of one, instead of being a "human girl." I got this picture yesterday while she was talking to her little colt. It was such a sweet moment between the two of them. (This one's for you Mr. Shows.)

Below is a picture of some of our crossbred does that we have put in the pasture with our horses. Don't they look like they've got it made in the shade? They were all lounging around chewing their cuds without a care in the world. Must be nice......then again I don't think I'd enjoy sitting in the pasture surrounded by fireant beds and horse poop while chewing on a wad of grass, hay and weeds. Nah, I'll pass on that one :)

Taking it easy

A foggy morning with my camera

2012-02-02T09:59:00.002-06:00

I got my camera today and of course it is really yucky outside. I just took it straight out of the box and tried it out without playing around with any of the settings. Of course Sonny had to come check out what I was doing. He is so nosy :) but I do love him.

I tried to get some pictures of the colt, too. He needs a good bath. All of this rain we have been having is making a big muddy mess.

You can see how foggy it is here today in the picture below.

Hopefully I'll get to play around with my camera and get the settings figured out. Maybe I'll be able to get some better photos to share with you all.

Hope you have a great day today!

Going Undercover

2012-01-31T12:14:00.000-06:00

This pup was missing for a little while until I realized that he was guarding "his" goats while staying undercover.

2 month old Anatolian Shepherd LGD

While I was taking his picture, he kinda had this look, " Just doin my job lady. Its a tough job but somebody has to do it".

A little progress being made...

2012-01-30T21:17:00.001-06:00

Shane and I were able to work on the house a little this past weekend. We have almost completed the walls in the living room. I am really happy we chose to go with the wood trim that we did. I think it really fits our lifestyle. So here is a little peek into what we did Saturday....

focused


living room

window trimmed out with the wood in the living room


Shane's project in master bathroom

I hope to have more to share soon. It seems like it is taking forever to get this house finished so we can move in. It is a blessing that we are able to work at it at our own pace. We will be able to look at it and have all of those memories of us working on it together. It has been an experience!

It's calving time

2012-01-27T12:55:00.000-06:00

We are starting to get some calves on the ground. I love to see all of the little ones arriving.

They are so playful. While I was trying to get some pictures, the next two below were running all over and playing. It was kinda hard to get a halfway decent photo for you.

Speaking of halfway decent photos, I am looking forward to getting my new camera. My camera has been taking some terrible photographs for a while now, and I have been looking around for a new one. I ordered one today and am super excited for it to arrive to try out.

This little guy had to be pulled a couple of days ago. He is out of a "first timer". He was positioned correctly, but she just couldn't push him out. She is out of a group of young heifers that were already bred this past summer when Shane purchased them. We've been watching them all closely. Especially since this calf came along. Hopefully all of the others will not have any problems.

3 day old calf

We also have some young heifers that we kept as replacements. They were all bred last summer to a Brangus bull. We have moved all of the young first timers to the pasture that is closer to our home. That way we can keep an eye on them. It is also easier to move them into a working pen from this pasture, just in case we need to get one caught up that is having trouble. Like I said earlier, we are hoping we do not have to provide any more assistance.....

Replacement heifer

This particular pasture they have been moved to also has a good bit of clover coming out. We have gotten a good bit of rain the past week and it has really jumped up. We have our main kiko doe herd in this pasture along with the heifers. They all seem to be getting along well. The way it's looking there will be plenty of clover for all.

ball clover

Farm Flashback Friday to 2009

2011-12-30T07:11:00.003-06:00

I decided to do a "Flashback Friday" post. It was nice to go back and read the happenings of that time and know that we have come a long way in preparations for our goat's kiddings. We now plan for the kids to arrive when the weather is much more suitable for being born out in the pasture.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a Happy New Year!

**Flashback**

Here are the photos I promised! It has been one crazy kidding season! You'll have to read our December 2009 link on the website @ www.deepsouthkikos.com to get the whole story. Many lessons learned. Hypothermia with kids, tube feeding, overprotective guardian, etc........

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T13:00:00.000-06:00

From our family to yours, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas!

Catching up....

2011-12-23T18:03:00.001-06:00

Boy oh boy! Have we had an exciting month! I've been behind on the news as usual, but I must say I'm spending more time enjoying everything that's going on more than thinking of my next post.....I guess it's been a little vacation :)

Taylor, Mal, Dillon, Alex, Peyton, Noah

Our oldest Dillon is now the big "9". We had a trip to our state Farm Bureau Annual Meeting planned around his birthday, so we invited a few friends over at the last minute and had pizza along with an ice cream cake. Shane and Paw Paw got a fire going so we gathered around a bonfire and enjoyed each other's company. It was really nice!

Dillon received many nice birthday gifts, but I must say there has been one that has brought much entertainment to us. It is the "Dart-Tag" gun set by Nerf. The darts have a velcro tip that will stick to the opponent's "uniform" . There's no denying if you've been hit. Those things really stick. Of course you get some pretty "cool" goggles to keep your eyes protected from all of the flying darts. You will see in the photos below, how much fun Dillon and Shane have had with these. It is very entertaining for me. I stay out of the firing range and just laugh at them. My poor treadmill has finally got some use lately. ;)

Fort behind the treadmill

Some serious father and son bonding going on when this game is played.

For our 10th anniversary, Shane planned a surprise weekend getaway for the two of us. He knew that I had always wanted to go see Graceland, so we made the trip to Memphis. I had no idea we were going. It truly was the best surprise ever!! I absolutely loved being able to see all of the Elvis artifacts. I grew up watching old Elvis movies and videos with my Aunt Lynne. She was so in love with Elvis, and I guess that rubbed off on me as a kid. Such good memories!

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Of course, they had a photo opportunity for you to have your photo taken in front of a green screen that would show up the background of Graceland in the photo. I must say that it was rather expensive, but I didn't pack my camera, so I wanted to have some sort of photo from the trip. It was so cold that morning and the picture was taken outside: hence our large jackets. If you are an Elvis fan, I would recommend making the trip. It was wonderful!

A Day Out and About

2011-12-13T12:03:00.000-06:00

It seems like everything happens when Shane is not home. The other day was no exception. Shane and the kids left for their ride to the parade, while I stayed behind to finish cleaning the house before I was to leave. I jumped out of the shower and looked at the clock and realized that I didn't have a whole lot of time to get ready, if I didn't want to be late for the parade. So off I go running around the house like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything ready (including myself... of course) Not only did I have the parade to go to, but I also had to take our sweet daughter to one of her little friend's birthday party. Oh...and I planned on trying to squeeze a little Christmas shopping into the day as well......OK, so I'm back to the story at hand.....sorry....sometimes I go off in tangents ( actually a lot ;) So as I was walked out the door to get into my car to leave, this is what I saw in my yard

Goats....yes it is not uncommon to see goats here on the farm, but they are generally supposed to be in the pasture on the other side of the fence. I didn't hire them, on that day, to do a little landscaping.....oh no....they decided to get out to sample the acorns and all things green on the other side.

So there I was.....sort of dressed up.... well, by dressed up I mean: my hair was washed and dried, makeup was applied, my nice jeans ( you know the ones without all of the manure stains, holes etc.on them), my nice boots ( you know the ones without all of the stuff mentioned before on them). I felt pretty good.....I was dressed and ready to go and would have arrived right on time.

BUT, the goats had to be back in a safer area than in my yard and the highway.....So I proceeded to wave my arms (like a crazy lady) while running towards them to get them headed down the road in the right direction. Those acorns must have been really good because they paid me no mind. I ended up taking my jacket off and swinging around by one of the arms to "shoo" them in the right direction. I swear if we had a video camera here, we could totally win some funny video contests. This place has produced many, many, many, funny situations; even if they didn't seem so funny at the time.

The goats did oblige me on this day to keep all of the passers-by from thinking I had lost my mind waving that jacket around swinging it like something gone mad. All I could think about was that I was not going to make it in time to the parade; but after much hooting and hollering and swinging my jacket, those goats were put back in a secured area.

There is truly never a dull moment around here. That is what living on a farm is all about! Oh and by the way, I made it to the parade just in time to see my family. You may already know that because I posted a video of them, but I just had to share my event for that day.....

Ashley

Christmas Parade 2011

2011-12-12T11:39:00.000-06:00

This past Saturday, my family (excluding me), decided to make a ride into a little town nearby for their Christmas parade. They hauled the horses about 4 miles outside of that town and met up with some others that were going to ride with them. This was the first long solo ride for Dillon. His horse did super, considering he had never been in a parade with all of the sirens and noises. Mallory rode behind Shane in the buddy saddle. She says it got boring....she's ready to ride on her own..... Mom's definitely not ready.

Here's a little clip from the end of the parade. Shane and Mallory are on the red/white paint (Sonny) and that little guy is Dillon on his horse (Shaggy).

Shane said that Sonny did give him a little trouble. Sonny was not happy to be there. He finally got to see how he behaves with me; which is totally stubborn. Shane is able to keep him in line......I'm a total pushover which isn't the best quality to have when trying to ride a horse that wants to go his own way.

Hay Quality

2011-12-06T18:53:00.001-06:00

We have always felt that our animals should be able to thrive on a forage based diet alone. Due to us living in south Mississippi, we are able to have forage available year round (most of the time). We have learned (the hard way, I might add ) that just because you have plenty of forage available, it doesn't mean that your livestock will thrive. If the forage isn't nutritionally adequate, your bottom line can suffer.

This year, Shane purchased hay from a guy a few miles from our home. He sent off a sample of the hay to the LSU AgCenter Forage Quality Lab. You can fill out this form here, and mail it along with your sample + $15. Louisiana and Mississippi forage and livestock producers can submit feed and forage samples for analysis to this lab. After testing your sample, they will send you a copy of the analysis. This is a very valuable tool to use to ensure that your livestock are getting the proper nutritional requirements. We had a deficit of TDN% (total digestable nutrients) and CP% (crude protein) because all of our females are bred; goats and cattle. They require a higher TDN% and CP% than what is available in the hay. Due to our results, we are experimenting with a Sweetlix protein tub to supplement along with feeding the hay. Right now, our cattle and goats are grazing stockpiled summer grasses with some clover starting to show through. When our Ball Clover comes up enough to be grazed, we will no longer supplement with the tubs. The forages available to them, at that time, will provide enough nutrients.

This year Shane learned of another tool from a MSU extension agent, which is the hay calculator found here. When you get to the Mississippi forages page, on the right side you will see the word calculator. Click on that link. It will take you to another page. There will be a link for the hay calculator as well as instructions on using the hay calculator on this page. You can enter the data received from a hay analysis, along with other data related to your operation (different types of livestock to be fed, number of head, number of bales in inventory, etc.) Once all of the data is entered, it will tell you if there is a nutrient deficit or surplus for each breed of livestock produced. It will also calculate how many tons of hay that you will need for the feeding season. We both looked at it and decided that I needed to share it with you. I hope that it is easy to understand. Sometimes I have so much information to share, that I find it hard to tie it all together into one cohesive post.

** The http://mississippiforages.com/ website has lots of great information for those that are in this region.**

Please Tell Me What To Do

2011-12-01T12:00:00.000-06:00

Once again, I've gotten some mustard greens and have tried to get all of the sand off of them. I have washed and washed and washed. There has to be a better way. First I cut them from the roots. It had rained so they did have extra dirt on the leaves. I put them in a cooler full of water, like someone had told me to do. Then I took them out, rinsed and cleaned out the cooler and repeated the process a couple more times.

I brought them inside and then proceeded to rinse them in my sink. I started thinking that there has to be a better way to do this for just one mess of greens. So the thought occurred to me to ask all of my friends out there in cyberspace. What do I do? Is there an easier way to get the sand from the greens? I haven't cooked any greens lately because of the sand issue. Nothing worse than getting a good ole bite of savory greens only to have a grain of sand find it's way between your molars while chewing. Uggghhh! We'll see how these turn out. If you have any suggestions for me......PLEASE......I'm begging.......please leave a comment below to let me know your tricks for removing the sand.

Thanks!

Ashley

A Work In Progress

2011-11-30T19:21:00.001-06:00

Some of you may know that we are in the process of remodeling the house that used to be Shane's grandparents. We have been working on it for a while now....like.......almost a couple of years. We have been trying to do all that we can by ourselves. It has been an experience, to say the least. I wanted to give an update on how it's working out. The home is an older block home; made out concrete blocks. The interior walls had an old outdated paneling hung over them, that we took down. We also knocked a wall down that was between the dining room and living room. This opened it up quite a bit! You can see in the photo below what it looked like prior to the drywall work. Check out that green wall that had been hiding under the paneling for who knows how many years. Minty :)

This past week my mother in law was out of school for the Thanksgiving holidays (she's a teacher), so she came over to give us a hand. The drywall was finished and primed, so she and I were in charge of getting the wainscoting boards stained and a coat or two of poly. We opted for a "natural wood" look, so I picked a lighter shade for the stain. I tell you, I don't want to go through the process of trying to pick out colors for anything EVER again! It is so frustrating for me....I can never make a decision. ( By the way, we had summer weather the whole Thanksgiving holiday week. It was in the 80's. Can you believe it?)

After we worked on the planks we'd let them sit on the saw horses for a while under the lights until they were dry enough to handle.

Then we'd take all of the planks and lay them on the floor in other rooms of the house to let them dry for the rest of the time. The stain took 8 hours while the polyurethane took about 4-5 hours.

Below is a photo of the same room with the boards in place. There will be a chair rail put on top of the boards and the windows will be cased in with the wood. We are going to get a new fan and definitely a new front door, but for now it's just a work in progress.

This is a shot from the other side of the room that has the chair rail added. It is really turning out nice. It's pretty neat to see that what you've envisioned come to be.

Hopefully we'll make more progress through the remainder of the year and be able to move in by Spring of next year! My fingers are crossed very tightly!

2011-11-24T05:00:00.000-06:00

Today's the day to reflect on all that we should be thankful for. God has truly blessed our family more than we deserve.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family near and far! God Bless You!

Crock-Pot Cornbread Dressing

2011-11-23T09:05:00.001-06:00

For those of you that have been asking for the recipe for crock pot dressing, here it is:

4 cups of shredded chicken ( I usually cook a chicken in the rotisserie and use the meat from that)

6 cups of cornbread-coarsely crumbled

9 slices of white bread torn into pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

3 celery ribs, chopped

3 1/2 cups of chicken broth ( I have frozen chicken broth stored for this) or you can use 2-14oz. cans of chicken broth.

2 small cans of cream of chicken soup

4 large eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp ground sage

Mix all of these ingredients in a large (very large) bowl. Then put it in a greased 5-6 qt crock pot. Then cut up 1 stick of butter into "pats" and arrange on the top of the mixture. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours or High for 4 hours. Stir well before serving.

Ever since I used this recipe, this is the most requested dressing...... It stays so moist!

Pinkeye

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

We have 2 commercial does that we are having to treat right now for pinkeye. I thought it would be a good idea to put a picture up for those who may have never had to deal with it. When we first had goats, many of them were purchased from the stockyard. Several of them would have pinkeye and end up needing treatment. Long ago, we quit the "stockyard" goat buying and haven't had one case of pinkeye until now. There's a saying we have here at our farm. " Well, now we know. Live and learn. "

If caught early, sometimes pinkeye will be present itself with a reddened eye and drainage. It may have a few patches of the white cloudiness on the cornea. Below is a photo of the doe with the worst case. Her cornea has actually turned opaque white. You can also see that there is drainage around the eye.

Add caption

We have isolated the does in a cattle trailer from the rest of the herd. We have sprayed their eyes with a warm saline solution to remove the drainage. We are treating them with LA-200 5cc/100lbs SQ (subcutaneous-which means under the skin, not in the muscle) injections. Previously we have used a Gentamycin ophthalmic spray without giving any injections. The LA-200 has been recommended to us by the vet. You will have to check with your vet to see what is recommended for you to use as treatment, if you should ever have to deal with this.

I wonder if any of this stuff will count towards keeping my nursing license current?? I could just see myself saying, " Sure, I've continued to practice nursing, I am a mom and live on a farm." What more can I say, it has come in real handy!

Anatolian Shepherd Pups.....and A Colt Too!

2011-11-22T07:06:00.001-06:00

I finally made it out to the pasture to get a few photos of Jael's new pups. She had made a den under an dead tree that had fallen over this past summer. They were so funny. When I walked up to take the photos, those little pups barked and growled at me like they were big massive dogs. I couldn't help but chuckle because they are just big ole balls of fur right now.

They have started coming out from under that tree with Jael in the pasture a few feet away. The pasture they are in has some of our newly weaned heifers and our bucks. Jael is an extraordinary LGD. I'm glad that we are able to raise our pups out in the pasture with all of the livestock so they are able to "learn the ropes" from Jael. We are also expecting pups from one of Jael's daughters, Cheyenne, any day. Cheyenne has super LGD instincts like her mom. We expect great pups from her as well.

On guard

We have a neighbor right down the road from us that also has goats, but no LGD. He said that he believes coyotes a getting some of his goats. We do have quite a bit of coyotes in our area, but since we've introduced guardians to our farm, we haven't had an issue. Check out this post here to see what LGDs can do to unwanted predators in the pasture with their goats.

Below is an updated photo of Dixie's colt. He is almost 2 months old. There is a lot more of the black showing through his coat than when he was first born. I'm not sure how long it takes to find out their true color, but he is a mixture of colors right now. He is also very dusty in this picture. It's dry as a bone around here, and those horses love to plop down and roll in dirt. It's so funny to see such a big creature wallowing on the ground. My mother in law said that for each roll they do on the ground, add $100. She said growing up, they would say that however many times the horses rolled from one side to the other; that would equal how much they were worth.

2 months

Pickle What?

2011-11-02T06:49:00.000-05:00

I have been up to my ears in bake sale preparations this week. We are winding up the Fall Festival King and Queen competition this weekend and bake sales were a part of it this week. I've learned a lot about what kids like to eat and drink this week. I saw a lot of kids running around with cups that looked like this......

You may wonder what is it just like I did. Whatever that was in those cups was "gold" to all of the children because they flocked to a specific table that offered these for sale. Can you guess what it is?

This, my friends, is what the kids so fondly referred to as pickle pops. Frozen pickle juice.....I mean who would've thought it? So for today's bake sale, I did what any other bake sale mom would do.

Pickle pops

I sold 2 gallons of pickles yesterday and was left with all of that juice. After seeing all of the mayhem over the pickle pops, I wasn't about to waste that juice by pouring it out. Oh no, my freezers are full of trays of frozen pickle juice. They were selling it for 25 cents a cup. These cups are like little Dixie cups. Those two gallons made about 65 cups.....Whew!

Hallelujah this is my last day! Each day is designated for a different grade. Since I have TWO children participating, I am a little "scatter-brained" these days. I could be like another parent that has 3 children in it, all the while expecting my fourth in a couple of months. Bless that mom's heart......She should get a medal!

Kissing The Goat

2011-10-29T20:00:00.001-05:00

Our children's missions class at our church held a Kiss the Goat contest to raise money for some of their missions projects. They chose 10 adults in our church that they wanted to have kiss the goat and made a jar for each one. It was then up to the church and community to decide which of the 10 it would be. The person with the most money in their jar was the chosen one. Our pastor, Bro. James, had repeatedly said that he wasn't going to be the one to pucker up. Well guess what?

" Bro. James meet Milkshake, the goat......Milkshake, this is Bro. James......"

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Bro. James was such a good sport. He even held this pose, in the photo below, for some time in order to have it documented. Thanks Bro. James!

All of this took place in our kid's playground area at the church. Today was our Fall Festival, so there were plenty of kids around. It was so funny how all of the kids just wanted to play with the goat and nothing else. Milkshake had never seen so many kids. I think she is still in shock from having so many of them playing with her.