SuperMom!

 Allow me a moment of confession.  There are times, after the rare occurrence of making it to the end of the day with a 95% crossed-off to-do list, my temper fully intact, the floor visible, and dinner ready, that I feel like I should wear a shiny cape and maybe even a mask.

Then Dulcinea shows me up.

On February 6, she effortlessly birthed 4 remarkably healthy babies for the second year in a row.

And makes enough milk to more than feed them all.

And yes, she does appear as though she's pulled her hair out, but its coming back in now and she moves with as much grace and dignity as ever.

She did choose a rather frigid day to birth these babies though.  Thankfully it was the first day of our "Spring Break #1" and having the morning interrupted with four furry babies in the dining room didn't cause a distraction in our education.

I brought them in as they were born, washed them off in warm water and allowed the girl child to use the blow drier and the boys to rub them down with a towel.  We have a new foster baby who squealed with delight then squealed in frustration at not being able to grab them with her own 2 little hands.  Once they were clean and dry I put them in the kennel and milked Dulci.  Normally we allow the moms to clean them off, but since it was so cold and she had them right in a major sand pit, she would have had to consume a large amount of sand to actually clean 4 babies.  And the temperature of low 40s made me nervous to leave them out for long.

Then came to naming.  True to Copper's record... boys.  ALL boys.  And since we had just finished studying the Renaissance and Farmer Boy 1 has recently discovered the joys of the Ninja Turtles, we named them Leonardo, Michelangelo,  Donatello, and Raphael.  Then they got neckerchiefs that coordinate them with their Ninja Turtle namesake.

The things I do to make a boy smile.  Or outright bellow with a hearty belly laugh.

I'm a sucker for my kids.

The End of an Era- Redneck Style

We had a time of sentimentality this weekend.  Time passes and it almost is like bidding a dear friend goodbye forever.

When we first moved to this house and started raising food on our single acre, we had no children but the one in my womb.  We also didn't have 2 nickles to rub together.  Money was so tight that if it wasn't redneck and hillbilly, it just wasn't.  

We got goats when I was pregnant with #2.  We put grain in a barrel in the porch (where the chicken grain was stored) and square bales of hay sat on pallets in the garage.  One, maybe 2 bales of hay was all that could be stored at a time or else Husbandman's car (who's was the only one short enough to fit at all in front of the hay) was left outside until the goats worked their way through the hay.

This all changed when we acquired a new shed.  We bought the property with two metal sheds, or shall I say two rust sheds.  One is inside the pasture and cumbersome to get to.  The other stores lawnmowers, the rototiller and other items.  So this new acquisition could be considered our barn.  First of all, its a much higher quality shed and thus has a floor and no rusty holes for mice and rats and snakes to use as private entrances.  Secondly, its spacious.  We had decided to purchase a shed and , for frugality sake, measured how small it could be and still hold all the things we wanted to store in it.  Then friends who were moving sold us their shed, which happened to be double the space for less than we had anticipated spending for the bare minimum.  So the next trip to the feed store was a big trip, with the trailer, buying 6-8 weeks worth of feed.  Previously we hauled out to the feed store every 7 to 10 days.  Its a 25 minute drive one way and I couldn't go and have room for a bale of hay with all 4 kids.  Husbandman couldn't go after work and still bring home the one child who attends preschool as he usually does.  So doing fewer trips with a trailer and storing large quantities is a very welcomed change.

But that meant disassembling the pallet rack we made for the hay.  And sweeping all the hay, for the last time, out of the garage.  And rearranging that whole area to hold bikes and kid toys.  And it was incredibly nostalgic, though you may call me nuts.

I don't think it would have affected me so much if it had only been the final removal of all things livestock from the garage.  But we also made the decision to abandon our small garden.  This was the very first garden we put it.  We had 2 very young children, the youngest just 3 months old.  We were reading a Mother Earth News to each other one May morning and came across an article about laying newspaper down right on top of grass and weeds, compost on top of that and planting straight into the compost.  We had a pile of left over pennysavers from our paper route and we had friends with horses who had offered us all the compost we wanted.  We started that very day.  I still remember the little guy sleeping in his baby bucket in the shade of a tree and our daughter using her shovel to spread compost and handing me papers to lay on the grass.

And since, like I said, we had no room in the budget for actual fencing, but had rabbits and turtles and lots of other creatures who would love to eat this garden, we had to find a fence.  So pallets again.  My husband came home with load after load of pallets from a company next door to his office.  Slowly the pallet fence grew until it stretched the entire perimeter.  But that wasn't the end of the pallets.  They kept coming and soon I had tables for planting seeds.  You see, if I plant seeds directly in the garden, ants and squirrels make off with them.  So I put them in pots which cannot be left on the ground or they suffer the same fate as well as getting poked and dumped by little hands.  My seedlings had to be elevated to have any hope of survival. So beside that garden were my stacks of pallets that acted as seed tables.  And things grew and we ate.  And we wanted more space so the very next year we did the same thing to an area more than double the size.  I kept both going and life was good.

Then this summer happened.  Appointments and busy-ness and a rogue goat wiped out that garden.  Nothing was growing in it but roselle and weeds.  The weeds were so thick I couldn't see the scrap tile pieces I used as my walkways.  I finally decided I needed to mow it.  By this time the pallet fence had fallen down and we had enough money to buy 2' fencing and enough step-in posts to keep the critters out.  So I took down the wire fencing, which was more like pulling it out with how entangled it was with weeds, and went at it with a lawnmower.  I then covered the entire thing with plastic, still planning to use this as a garden in the fall.

And about a year ago my seed tables were replaced by nice stainless steel tables a friend bought from a restaurant going out of business.  She had her husband were going to be slaughtering a few chickens at our house and were less than impressed by our set-up... which was an overturned Rubbermaid tote with a plastic bag taped to it... found these tables and bought them for permanent storage here.  I put my seed pots on them and when we slaughter something, the seed pots get set on the ground, the surface gets scrubbed and we have a beautiful processing area.  Those tables were kept in front of the little garden, right along the drive way.  And had a tendency to get just as weedy as the garden.

It got to be that when I'd drive up to the house and look at it objectively, as I sometimes do to see the biggest eye-sores, these tables with the weeds and the pots and buckets and, well, junk, they really were quite a pimple on the face of our property.  So we moved these tables to alongside the new shed which helped it blend in a little better too.

But this weekend, while looking at the little garden, and thinking about building raised beds around the perimeter as a weed-proof wall, and the 2 pecan trees, 1 citrus tree, 2 pomegranate trees a host of persimmon trees and a loquat tree we'd like to find places for, I simply pulled up the plastic, dug out the tiles and decided to let it go.  The established grapevines are here as well as the roselle which I'm not sure will be a perennial or what so its not like the land is carved from the face of the earth and left as an empty pit.  I'll decide what trees will occupy this site and how, along with pineapples, strawberries and that thorny dragon fruit,but it will no longer hold garden beds.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the neighbors will still have opportunities to groan and our necks will be as red as ever, but for us, for now, it feels like things have really changed.  Having extra income to buy supplies to be able to do something properly has made a huge difference.  I like the difference, don't get me wrong, but the memories are sweet.  So very sweet.  My life is so rich I could live it over and over and over and never grow tired of it.  Rich or poor, enough or in want, we have always had such precious memories.  May this be the case forever.

One Hundred and ONE! Nope, only 4.

As stated in the previous post, we were itching for Dulci to have her babies.  She was HUGE and I was certain she had at least twins and possibly triplets in there.  Sunday,  Jan 29, we did chores and I checked her tendons.  They were undetectable indicating birth was imminent.  We went in and got ready for church.  From inside the house I heard Angel do a funny little "yip yip" type of bark.  Not her normal bark at all.  The same bark she did when Doby was giving birth.  I figured something was going on, but I wanted to finish dressing a little man before I went exploring.  Moments later Husbandman called me from the pasture.  "We have feet."  As in, feet were poking out.  By the time I got there the first was out and she was busy cleaning it off.  We stayed outside the barn peeking over the side walls to watch.  After a little bit, I began to wonder if she really did only have 1 baby.  But then she laid down to labor on the 2nd.  That one came out easily and she immediately worked on the third.  I slipped in to clear the nose of #2 as she was too busy on the 3rd to do so.  Then she was back up and cleaning them off.  I went inside to get the iodine and towels.  When I came back out, Husbandman said it seemed like she was still pushing.  I said she must just be working on the placenta, but when I looked, the upper half of a 4th was hanging from her and she had decided she was done.  There it hung, alive and confused.  I assisted just to break the sack and cause it to fall free from her.  We were amazed.  Four babies, all alive, well-formed and mama dutifully attending to them all.  I dipped the umbilical cords and readied, again, for church. 

When we got home, we separated the babies from Dulci.  We need them able to drink from bottles, and we want at least some of that milk.  The kennel was all ready for them and the kids were anxious to play with their new furry friends.

We have 2 does and 2 bucks in the mix.   Though so tempted to name them Eenie, Meanie, Miney, and Moe, we decided it wouldn't be too nice to name a goat "Meanie".  So instead we named them Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter.  One doe has long, pointy, nigerian dwarf ears while all the rest have tiny lamancha ears, so she's Flopsy.  One is brown while the rest are white so we named him Peter.  Mopsy and Cottontail look very similar, noted merely by 1 large spot on her right shoulder for Mopsy and 2 smaller spots on the same right shoulder for Cottontail. 

Since then, there's been more to distinguish them.  Like Flopsy and Cottontail will suck ferociously and are vigorous enough eaters that the kids have been feeding them for a week.  Peter and Mopsy don't suck.  They gnaw and swallow as milk dribbles into their mouths.  This means I feed them, and it takes a LONG time.  And both at times have had their turns of making me wonder if they would make it.  But between vitamin B injections, Nutri-drench and a lot of patience, they've each managed to hold their own.  And with nibbles here and there on leaves and grass that the kids pick for them, it may only be a couple more weeks that I have to force every drop of milk down their throats.  They won't be show quality, but they are definitely getting used to human cuddling.

Bewilderment

Take a little walk through history with me.  In April of 2010, we acquired Helen and her daughter Doby who was only 2 months old.  Shortly after that she got pregnant and had Willy in September of the same year.  Then she got pregnant just one month later.  I didn't even know that was possible.  But sure enough, she birthed Jonah and Julius in March of 2011.  Jonah appeared healthy, but Julius seemed to lack a proper suck reflex.  He died about 2 weeks after he was born.  We got Copper good and isolated that very month. 

Or so we thought.

I had wanted to give poor Helen a nice break from babies.  But in November she started to look round.  She had always been so scrawny and gangly that seeing her a little on the plump side made me happy. 

We also, in the month of October, had some troubles with Copper.  It started with him jumping his 4' fence repeatedly.  We never found him in the paddock with the others, but clearly that was his goal.  He spent a week on the end of a chain until we could contruct "The World's Ugliest Fence" around the bachelor pad.  Then we went camping and came home to find that he had ripped a hole right through his fence, broke a 4x4 pressure treated post in half with his head, ripped the common area fence right off the rest of the posts and was in with everyone having a hay day.  His interest was mostly in Doby and Bella so I had hoped in those few hours (14 at most) that it would not just happen to be the 2 or 3 days in a month that Helen could get pregnant.

But then her milk dried up rather suddenly and she she started looking fat.  She's a lot like me... barely pregnant and people are already asking when the due date is.  I wondered if she was pregant or was she finally just recovered from multiple babies and lactations?

December 20th we had our answer.  She didn't come when I fed them that morning.  That's always a red flag for any of our critters.  I went in and checked her out and found two tiny fetuses hanging out of her.  They looked the same, size and all, of the rabbit babies that had also died that same morning (more about that later).  I mourned.  I tried to save her from pregnancy and didn't and now she has 3 dead babies (including Julius) all because her poor body was just tired and couldn't grow them properly.

She cried all night that night.  She didn't eat for a couple days.  Now she's back to normal.  So much so that she butts Bella away from the feed.  But we started wondering exactly what happened.

Possibility #1: Copper DID get in the common area in early October and then back out during those couple weeks we were fighting him.  Likelihood- very low.  If he got in and back out, Dulci would have surely followed him.

Possibility #2: Helen did just happen to be in heat when he got in the common area in late October.  Likelihood- about 1 in 14 chance.  Not to mention that he did not appear interested Helen when I was draggin him away from his harem.

Possibility #3- Helen lives in perpetual heat like a rabbit.  Likelihood- well, I've never heard of that before, but if anyone's like that its fertile Myrtle Helen.

Possibility #4- Those were Valentino's babies and destined to miscarry anyway.  Likelihood- moderate.

So, yes, sheep and goats can reproduce.  It doesn't happen often, but when it does they are almost always miscarried or stillborn.  Very rare occurances result in live births.  Odd as it sounds, I think this is the thought we'll need to run with.  That Valentino will need to be kept separated from at least Helen during times when she's not pregnant and we don't want her to be.

Is that feasible???  That's 7 months of the year.  And he can't be in the bachelor pad or he and Copper will kill each other.  Is it likely Valentino wouldn't attempt to mount her except in the fall when ewes are in heat?  Would that at least chop those 7 months down to 2?  Or would we just need to arrange her "schedule" so she's pregnant in the fall? 

Or does she need to get moved on to a home that's not so hard on her uterus?

Questions abound.  No conclusions just yet.  Any advice would be appreciated.  I just really don't want her continually pregnant by whatever random critter is woed by her feminine whiles.  I'd rather see her in a different home than harmed because we can't feasibly provide what she needs.

Picking Up Speed

The title of this post is not referring to any new drug use, though I'm sure that would be momentarily helpful.  No, instead I'm seeing our fall whizzing toward us at break-neck speed and I'm scrambling to be ready when in slams into my hot summer pace.

Not that summer has been lazy.  Just still working on summer stuff, that's all.

Sometime in July and August (see, I told you I was behind), I finished picking the last of our grapes.  Got about 10 gallons this year.  I fired up the canner to make jelly, but instead of creating a sauna inside, Husbandman set me up reeeeaaaallll nice.  And you have to read the rest of the post in a true southern drawl to get the full effect.

We recently acqured a large 2-burner gas stove, mainly for this very pupose but also for any pesky hurricanes that take out our power for any length of time.  This burner easily held my water bath canner and my pot of grape jelly.  I also did watermelon rind jelly since everything was fired up and crankin'.  And I had a nice shadey spot to work while still keeping an eye on the rugrats in the pool or swing set.  Everyone was happy... until a wet bottom found its way onto my Countryside magazine while I was up stirring the brew.  Anyway, about half my grape jelly turned out just fine.  The other half and the watermelon stuff didn't set so at some point I'll reopen those jars and try again.  More pectin, more sugar, more cooking and stirring.  One day I'll learn how to get it right the first time around.

I registered farmer girl and "Thumper" for the county fair last week.  Now we get to figure out the proper positioning and handling of a rabbit, not to mention getting her tattooed. (The bunny, not the girl).  A friend suggested waltzing into our local tattoo parlor, "Bad Azz Tattoo" with our fur ball and suggested a nice barb wire tat around the bicep.  Tempting... but we're obligated to letters and numbers in the left ear.  Later today, we're moving Thumper and Dumplin (because farm boy 1 won't be left out) into the porch for easier access for practicing.  And I also get to make matching outfits for the girl and her bunny.  Not really sure how, or why I'm happy about that, or even what possessed me to think of entering her into that contest, but I did.  And ya know, the smile on her face will be worth it, I'm sure.  The girl, not the bunny.  Not sure the bunny will be too thrilled on the notion.

We slaughtered our first ducks on Saturday.  We're having a rough go.  We started with 10 around Easter.  One died we think from internal injuries suffered at the paw of Angel.  Another turned sick-looking a while later and died.  Another just a couple weeks ago started limping and went quite lame.  He was one we slaughtered and by Saturday he was down to nothing.  He must have been starving for a week and a half, unable to walk enough to eat and drink.  Another had a large cyst/tumor thing on its face.  We culled them both and one is due for the oven momentarily.  The other (the skinny one) will be made into soup on a fine autumn day.  And now, yet another is acting lame.   We now have 1 good male, 4 females and a lame male.  Good for breeding stock which is what we wanted, but I'm nervous whatever has happened already will end up happening to our last remaining drake.  Unless its male competition that's doing it.

Nina is unwittingly enjoying her last meal.  I called a friend on a whim to see if he was interested in swapping a sheep for some beef.  He is, but wants it in meat form, minus the hoof.  So, sweet Nina is leaving us.  I haven't broken it to the girl child yet, but I don't think it will be a huge issue.  She's more keen on Daisy now anyway because Daisy is smaller.  She's never taken slaughtering real hard.  My mom was over while we killed the ducks and she expected a traumatic reaction from her granddaughter.  To her surprise, farm girl very bluntly and calmly explained the whole process to her and ended with, "And that's yummy MEAT!"  Yes, she's our sweet little carnivore.

We have re-acquired Doby.  You may remember Helen's baby... who had a baby... and we sold to some friends to get them started in dairying?  Well, they've decided farm-livin' is not exactly the life for them.  At least not with a triple digit heat index that go on for months at a time.  So we have her back and we're happy.  She's so sweet.  The farm girl is learning to milk on her (she's the only one who doesn't protest).  We initially only wanted 3 total dairy goats, but we're going to run with it.  4 isn't too different.  Especially since we decided to only keep Zuma and Valentino for breeding sheep.

We put Dulci in with Copper a week or so ago since its about time for her heats to start.  And sure enough, she got him all riled up. (Don't forget that southern drawl).  She escaped on Saturday while we were gone.  We put her in with the rest of the ladies until we could fix the fence.  Sunday Husbandman could tell she was in heat and Copper was just beside himself.  So we put her back in despite the fact that the fence wasn't shored up.  Sunday night she was out again and we put her in with the ladies.  Monday morning Copper was out... and he had circumcized himself in his escapades.  We put them both together and immediately went to fence fixing... at 7:30am.  At this Husbandman remarked that "we watch more goat sex before breakfast than most people see in a lifetime."  And yes, bloody and injured though it be, Copper took his one and only job very seriously and did it thoroughly job right before our very eyes.  The kids were inside watching a dinosaur documentary just in case you were concerned for their innocense.  He's calmed significantly today, but I have not ventured close enough to get a full accounting of his injury.  The bleeding has stopped and he's acting normal so I'll probably just let him be.  I mean, I do know the injury was, um, flushed.

And since I may not get blogging again for another month, let me comment on the state of our bee hives.  We suspect that both of our hives swarmed and that we checked one hive at just the wrong time and caused the new queen to fly off in fear.  So we put a frame of eggs (we think) and larvae from the other hive into the queenless hive.  And next week is the moment of truth.  Hopefully they're doing their thing.
I've got radishes, squash, and mustard greens ready to go in the ground.  The jelly melon is finally producing... like mad.  Picked our first one today just to determine how to know when its ripe.  We've got a busy week lined up with not a stitch of gardening in it so next week will have to border on insanity. 

Especially since the kiddie pool bit it this weekend.  That marks the official end of summer.

Bella and Zuma

 Meet the newest additions.  This little nubian is Bella (I know we already had a Bella, but hey, we like the name).  She's a 1 year old doe with good genetics and very sweet disposition.  She's a bit skinnier than we were expecting so we're taking this month to condition her and we'll breed her to Copper at the beginning of July.  She's our replacement for Doby and our means of milk through the winter.  She'll kid in Nov/Dec.  Dulci will kid in Feb/Mar and Helen in June/July.  Milk flowing all year and Helen still gets her nice long vacation.

 Bella's a quick study too.  After only 1 day of leading her to the milking table, she knows right where to go and the patches of nicest leaves when she's finished with her grain.  Like the other goats, she doesn't much care for tethering.  She doesn't like to be away from the other goats, even if it is so she can have the best forage without competition.  I guess most anorexics do it for social reasons, right?

And this is Zuma.  She's a Suffolk/Hampshire cross ewe.  She's 5 years old.  Her previous owner was a local middle school student and wasn't going to be able to continue taking care of her as she went on to high school.  Zuma has been bred twice before and gave twins both times.  She's a good bit bigger than our Khatadin sheep.  The twinning genetics and the size hopefully coupled with Valentino's fast growing genetics and we have a winning combination.  Zuma is also very sweet and tame.  When she first arrived, she was scared and rather scary.  The other animals ran when she came near.  Now, they're exercising the we-were-here-first attitude and shoos her off the hay until they're done.  We're working on keeping a collar on her and we'll soon tether her as well, but I want her to get used to us first.  Scared animals are dangerous animals.

And meet our Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars.  There were 10 of these guys on my fennel plants.  They're missing now so I assume they've gone to metamorphosize.  I hope so.  Farm Girl would love to see a host of swallowtail butterflies dancing outside our living room window.  And thankfully she's not skillful enough with her net to catch too many either.

The Little Dobers

As I alluded in another post, Doby kidded about midnight on April 21st.  She didn't make a peep.  I knew something was up because Angel started making this excited, confused whimper noise.  I went out and there was a sweet little blue-eyed buckling, pictured with Farmer Girl.  I let them stay together until morning.

Doby's done really well on the stand.  She gives a little over half a gallon a day.  While that's not stellar, she's still quite small.  But even still, we made a decision to move her on.

You see, we have friends who wanted to get into dairying.  It's difficult to find dairy goats around here.  We figured out that if we let them have Doby, it would open up a space in our pasture for a different goat- one we could get pregnant now and make sure to have us in milk through the winter.  And Doby's a good beginner goat.  She doesn't have a testy attitude.  She's sweet and lovable and totally people-friendly.  And not giving a ton of milk means the hands can those unused muscles good and strong before having to milk out a gallon at a sitting.  My first few days of milking after a dry spell always leaves me with cramping, sore hands.

So our friends prepared their milking stand and got their milking supplies and we delivered Doby to them last weekend.  Their Alpha-goat, a bossy female pygmy, did not much care for the addition at first, but it sounds like everyone is starting to settle in and find their groove... though Doby will not be able to lounge in empty hay baskets anymore.

And we found our replacement already!  She's a 1 yr old pure Nubian.  She spent most of her days at a school before going home with a student.  That student's mom is now looking to decrease the number of mouths she's feeding.  We're getting her tested for CAE (a contagious disease similar to Johnnes in cows) and the results of that test will be available Friday.  If she comes back negative, Sunday afternoon we'll drive out to pick her up.  She'll immediately go in with Copper meaning she'll kid in October or November.  That's about the time Dulci will get pregnant, kidding in March or April.  And we'll get Helen pregnant in March or April for kidding in August or September.   And thus never have a day without fresh milk! 

And also never have a day without milking!  But that's another reason we were so keen on helping our friends get a good start in dairying... we can milk for each other!  Either family can now go away for a few days and the others are fully equipped to cover those missed milkings.  Its a huge relief to know we won't have to dry off our goats just to go to a family reunion.  Instead we'll just truck those goats to their house and they get an abundance of milk for cheese-making!  We haven't been  away from home more than 14 hours in well over a year.  Not that we're going to run off on vacation... but its nice to know we could!

Dairy Goats- you need one

When someone finds something that works and is enjoyable, they tend to evangelize their methods or discovery with the world.  Such is this post where in I tell everyone precisely why they simply must have their own dairy goats.

I'll start with our journey which began in the fall of '07 with 2 Nigerian Dwarf does.  We planned to tether them to trees in the would-be pasture during the day, enclose them in step-in electric fencing at night or when we weren't home and let them clear their own living space.  That didn't work as well as planned... ok, it didn't work at all.  They got repeatedly tangled around trees and brush and didn't eat the palmetto scrub that filled our land.  We ended up keeping them in the front yard for a year while we cleared (with heavy equipment) the back half of our property and fenced it.  Then came fencing... we planned to do barb/electric fencing in a high tensile fashion because that was cheapest.  But we didn't rent a stretcher and didn't know a lick about getting proper insulators for the posts.  And posts at proper 8' intervals would have broke the bank so we actually marked and saved trees and danced our pasture fencing around to use them as posts instead.  Husbandman gave me the fence for Christmas of '08... and the first goat we put inside immediately turned and walked out, straight through our barbwire/electric fence.  And no, we didn't electrify the barb wire, but we had plain wire in between that was supposed to be electrified.  With that disaster behind us, we then saved up and bought enough 3' woven wire fencing to go around the perimeter.  That kept them in.  We started milking Christmas of '07, traded up to full-sized goats in the spring of '10 and have learned a LOT along the way.  On to discussing all that learning:

Fencing- While I don't advise anyone to go quite as redneck as we poor, living-on-love honeymooning parents did, there are some things I do advise to anyone keeping goats. They aren't as hard to contain as people make them out to be.  If you do a fence right, they'll stay in.  Our suggestion is to use sturdy trees and fence posts every 8 feet.  Use cement on corners at least.  4-5' welded wire with 2"x4" openings (or no climb fence) is best.  Using a stretcher is good too, but not imperative.  Also add 1 or 2 strands of barbed wire inside right at goat body height.  This prevents them from using posts as scratchers and pushing your posts over.  3' fencing with 1 or 2 strands of barb wire over it work fine too.

Breeds- There's more variation between the goats and their personalities than between the breeds.  If you want meat, boer is the breed of choice.  Pygmies would be the smaller version.  Milking goats are basically everything else.  Nigerian dwarfs we found to not give enough milk.  We had heard nubians were the hardest to contain.  Our nubian has only once ever gotten out and that was when a storm took down a portion of fencing and everyone got out before we knew what was going on.  The buck has been the hardest to contain... but again, that's been with using unstretched chainlink we found on the side of the road and bendable aluminum posts.  Do a real fence... ya know, like spend at least SOME money on it, and they'll respect it.  We kept our nigerian buck even when we upsized because he's sweet tempered and if he does get ornery (which all bucks do some), he's small enough for me to take down.  We're in it for the milk, not the babies (who we sell anyway) so them being mutts really doesn't matter.  Besides, mini-nubians and mini-manchas are gaining in popularity now anyway.  If you want a dairy goat, its best to get a goat from someone who milks them.  Goat kids drink about a quart a day, but if a full-sized goat only gave that in a day, they'd be considered a rather poor milker.  But keep in mind that the cast-off's from someone who's really serious about milkers may be a great find for a decent price.  Helen came from a lady who had a huge spread.  She gave lots of milk but once turned out on that big spread where she had to forage for herself, she dropped.  Her conformation is terrible (sshhhhh, don't tell her I said that!) and being on her feet that long... well, she'd rather starve.  Our set-up suits her fine.  She can lay down and stick her head in the hay basket and then give her gallon a day.  And another thing when looking for stock, we've learned "bottle babies" are the way to go.  If they're bottle fed at birth, they will always be easy to handle for milking.

Milking- The process of milking is really quite simple.  Squeeze the teats in different ways until you get something out, then repeat what you just did.  Refine as you go.  We don't have a fancy stanchion.  We have 1/2" plywood on four 4"x4"s about 12" high.  We built it low to make it easy for dwarf goats to get on.  Build it higher for bigger goats.  We built a hobo bucket holder (call it an after market addition) because they kept knocking the feed bucket off.  We have an eye screw in just before the bucket holder with a chain and clip which we use to keep them on the table. (Right by the milk jug... which is just another redneck remedy for something else). It does hold them if they really want down (these goats are big enough to simply knock the table over and drag it with them), but it deters them enough from moving to milk them out.  We also have an eye hook by each back foot.  I cut up an old dog leash and re-sewed it to be a loop of fabric with a clip on it.  We wrap the loop around an ankle, slip the clip end through and lock to the eye hook.  They hate it, but it keeps their feet still while they're learning to be milked or while shaving udders and such.  We don't do that for each milking because they're just calmer without it once they know the drill.  You can see Husbandman teaching a friend the milking procedure.  Milk into a small stainless steel bowl (we set it on another bucket to get it close to the udder making aiming much easier) then frequently dump into a bigger container (which is a stainless steel pot with a lid just barely visible under the table.  The white and green thing was our old small bucket holder and still serves an occasional purpose.)  This means that if they kick the bowl or junk falls in, you only loose a little and not your whole milking.  After milking, we use a dairy filter that fits in a special strainer that flows into a mason jar.  We put a plastic lid on the jar and label it for the day and morning or evening.

  Why not cows?-  We don't know why everyone is so cow happy.  Goats are family sized.  Lets look at the economy of scale for a cow:  The heifer calf if born.  2 years later its bred.  9 months later it "freshens" or gives birth.  You milk an insane amount of milk for7-9 months where you may not be able to use it all.  The time to make all that cheese, butter and yogurt doesn't increase with the quantity.  The cow can still get testy, only its 1200-1800 lbs of testy.  To breed her you need a bull... those aren't fun.  So you either bring on an expensive artificial inseminater or you buy a bull or you haul your cow to the nearest bull in town.  And you better have a LOT of land if you're going to keep 2 cows so you have 1 giving milk while the other is dry.  So basically after 3 years and a bunch of money, you have more milk than you can use followed by a long stretch with nothing.

Now let's look at a goat.  You buy a young kid, raise it 18 months and get it bred.  If you don't want a buck, you put it in a dog crate, toss her in the truck and bring her to a buck.  5 months later you get a gallon a day.  A usable but abundant amount of milk.  For the space of a cow you can keep 3-4 goats meaning you can easily always have 1 or 2 in milk.  If a goat gets testy, its 100-150 pounds of testy.  They don't want to stand to be milked, you're strong enough to force them.  If its a cow... well have fun.  And goats have personality.  And no, I'm not saying that as a nice way to say they're quirky.  They really are fun creatures.  But the biggest difference is just the safety of smaller size.  I don't worry about my kids being around them.  The worst that could happen is they get knocked down.  With a cow, they could get knocked down and stepped on resulting in major bone breakage and worse.  Big scale production means big scale problems. 

So there's my 2 cents worth.  Now go find yourself a goat!

Sweet Dulcinea

I've been doing a lot of reading and researching about how to better care for our animals, namely our goats.  Pat Coleby's "Natural Goat Care" has been top of my list.  That's where I first read about giving goats copper sulfate as a copper additive.  Many common ailments are easily remedied when goats get the proper amounts of copper.  Providing free choice minerals with enough copper isn't an option while sheep are around as copper will easily kill a sheep.  So when I read to give 1 tsp of copper sulfate per goat per week, I thought I had the silver bullet of husbandry going.  Last Monday was my first day administering it.  Each dairy goat came out to eat while on the milking stand (hence away from all sheep) and each got their allotted teaspoon.  The buck, being housed alone, got his copper in his normal feed as well.  I noticed they seemed to tire of their food before eating it all, so this week I gave them only grain (instead of mixing grain with alfalfa pellets), less of it and the copper sprinkled on top.  Each goat did fine.  I had also read that calcium deficiencies are common in dairying goats and diatomaceous earth was a great supplement that will also help with any worm problems.  I heard to give it to them every day for 60 days.  So a couple weeks ago I started that as well.  There were no amounts mentioned, but I doubted any issue of too much so just sprinkled some on their morning feed every day.

Which brings me to Tuesday morning.  As I said, I gave only grain, a little less than a pound, a little diatomaceous earth and a teaspoon of copper sulfate sprinkled on top.  Doby came out first.  She doesn't eat much and doesn't milk much so she lost interest about when I finished milking.  I tethered her to a tree to eat some leafy greens while I milked the rest, and put her bucket with her remaining feed within reach.  She never finished it all, but ate most of it.  Dulci came out next.  I had her bucket of feed, DE and copper ready.  She ate well, milked well and eagerly munched grass on her way back to the barren "pasture".  Helen was next and she did about the same as Dulci, maybe eating a bit less.  I also gave Copper his portion.  Monday night, Husbandman was milking and both Dulci and Helen were low.  The bug zapper was active and they seemed jumpy.  We wondered if a storm was coming because they seemed a bit on edge, but nothing showed on the radar.  Nothing notable about the moon either.

Tuesday morning I got up to find only Doby waiting for me.  She bounced out and onto the table and was perfectly normal.  After she was finished, I called for Dulci who was laying down toward the back of the common area.  She let out a bellow but didn't move.  Helen slowly sauntered over and came out for milking.  I could see walking behind her that she was quite low on milk.  She didn't eat at all, but stood still for me to milk her.  Yes, she was low but she's not exactly little miss constant supply.  When she was done, I went back for Dulci who had risen long enough to move to a shadier spot.  I went in and prodded and half picker her up.  She got up, walked about 5 feet and laid back down.  I started panicking.  I prodded and hefted again.  Again she walked about 5 feet and laid down.  I got her up and started dragging her where she walked to just outside the gate and laid down again.  I had to pull her out more to close the gate.  I got a bucket of hay and put it in front of her.  She nibbled some.  I got her up, kept her moving about 15' this time and she laid down again.  I left the bucket there and called my husband, called Hoeggar Goat Supply and started crying.  Farm Boy 2 came and laid down beside her and giggled about resting his head on her.  She didn't mind at all.  I let her rest a spell then prodded her up again.  I got her to the table where I had to lift her onto it because she didn't have the strength to jump.  She nibbled a bit at the hay, was not at all interested in grain or alfalfa.  She gave a third of her normal milk.  I wondered about copper toxicity.  She showed some interest in leafy trees so I stood there with her, bending branches down, letting her eat until she tired and laid down.  I coaxed her back into the pasture and did research.

Copper toxicity, though rare CAN occur in goats and they usually die within 24 hours (we were right at 24 hours).  Hoeggar goat supply folk were as unhelpful as always, suggesting a whole host of meds they'll gladly sell me.  I should have them all in my medicine cabinet right now and they treat me like I'm a fool if I don't.  They did give me a number to another person.  And the man at the feed store gave me a number.  And another friend gave me a number.  So I did everything.  I tried to get a vet to see her to get an injection of atripine (spelling???), I ran to the health food store and got thiamin tablets and shoved them down her throat.  I shoved down a few activated charcoal tablets too.  Also gave her a shot of B-complex.  I finally got a hold of one vet who said if she wasn't eatingor drinking she was probably too far gone to save.  That's when I lost it.  After months, or a year even, of constant kicking, just when I think I'm hitting normal again, my very favorite goat dies at my hand.  I'm ready to quit everything.  I'm ready to sell the house and move to a condo. 

Then a friend calls.  I sob on the phone with her.  She's known the ins and outs of every other problem I've had as well so was very sympathetic.  She said another friend said to bring her to her vet.  I explained that I had already called that vet and was told she was too busy to even talk to me on the phone. We hung up.  I went back to crying.  Torrential downpour comes and I run out to let the sheep back in to the barn.  Dulci hadn't moved at all.  She refused to drink for me.  I hugged her and cried some more.  A little while later that other friend showed up at my door and said to load her up, that she knew her vet would see her.  So I sent my kids to my neighbor's, backed the car to the pasture and we half carried half dragged Dulci out and loaded her into the back of the Tucson.  She stood the whole time... which I thought was a good sign.

The vet had a nice fenced area that we let her into.  My friend called her to say we were there and she came right out.  (It's nice to have friends in high places!)  We discussed a whole host of things:
1) If it were copper toxicity, her poop would be blueish.  Right then and there she pooped and it all looked good, but she took a sample.
2) Giving her more grain than normal could have thrown off her rumen.  It wasn't much more, but it was a possibility.
3) She could have parasites and the vet then told me that waiting until their eyes pale out to deworm is waiting too long.  I'd like to have her in a room with the ag extension agent who swears we're creating super bugs by routine deworming.
4) She could have eaten something else toxic.

So the vet took blood samples and my friend and I left her there.  I came back by to drop off some peanut hay for her on the off chance she'd decide to eat.  I thanked my friend repeatedly, but I really can't thank her enough.  She gave me hope when all hope was lost.

A few hours later the vet called me back.  Dulci's calcium and phosphorus levels were very high, but that's not something that kills a goat.  She also had a hearty population of parasites in her fecal sample.  She's never shown any signs of illthrift from parasites, but being that she's such a strong goat, that count could be high and just not affecting her much.  Or the copper could be doing its job and shedding them.  Her lethargy could be from an overdose of calcium (which another friend told me she personally had and it made her feel horrid), or from the parasites being cleansed too quickly... or being spring, she had a rapid upsurgence in parasites.

So now I'm left to decifer what I'm to do with not just Dulci but all our goats.  Should I continue with the copper supplements?  The one vet and Hoeggar's were very adamant against it.  Hoeggar's wants me to buy "their minerals" (and charge me $50 in shipping!) and that vet wants me to have their copper levels tested several times a year.  The Hoeggar minerals would have to be administered away from the sheep, meaning it would never be free choice, but just during milking times.  Reading more from Pat Coleby, I'm inclined to think she really does know what she's talking about.  I'm wondering if a gradual approach is better... maybe 1/4 of a tsp for several weeks first?

As for Dulci, the vet recommended fenbendazole for parasite control.  I'll administer that recommended dosage for her and feed her milk to Angel and the chickens for a week (the withdrawal time in milk hasn't been determined).  I'm going to stop with the DE or maybe give it free choice rather than mixed in feed.  We read on Fias Co Farm's site about doing our own fecal parasite tests.  It's an initial investment of a microscope (which in this family of nerds will be a blessing to our homeschool anyway) and some test tubes but given that I could carefully watch their levels on my own, I think its a good thing to start doing.

When we brought Dulci home, she was much more chipper.  She almost ran once she saw the pasture.  But then got side tracked by leafy trees along the way.  She still didn't readily come for milking.  We had to prod her up and drag her out, but she jumped onto the table without assistance.  She wasn't interested in feed so I stood there cutting leafy branches and holding them for her to eat.  I hugged her goodnight and gave her some nuzzles.  She nuzzled back, sweet girl.  I don't tend to think of myself as emotionally attached to our animals, but I am.  A lot, I guess. 

So in the end, I'm open to suggestions, advice and opinions.  I don't want just run-of-the-mill animals completely dependent upon chemical dewormers the way every other goat in Florida is, but I also don't care for this "experimentation on live animals" thing either.  Share your wisdom, everyone!

Flash Farming

Husbandman and I may not be known to let grass grow under our feet, but we do usually do things rather methodically, calculated, planned, over-planned and almost always over-researched.

But this year seems to be different.  Without meaning to, it seems as though we're blitzkrieging on new enterprises.

So Mona spontaneously got bred.  And we spontaneously brought home Brownie, another rabbit for breeding, when some friends offered her to us.  This leaves us with 2 filled rabbit hutches, neither with a nest box, neither with enough room for the mother and her 6-week old weened young and no suitable pen for said young.  With Mona due in just over a week, I have ordered three 20"x26"x6" wash basins for nest boxes (because I don't have time to build something).  It gives us about 7 weeks to build a pen large enough for the weened young.  We intended to breed Brownie pretty soon, but that may be put on hold for a bit now. (whew!)

Then Doby kidded last night.  I wasn't expecting her to kid until May or June, but a couple days ago I realized her time was immanent.  I was quite nervous for her as she's just over a year old and still rather small.  That she was bred to a dwarf goat eased my mind only slightly.  But my worries were for naught.  She birthed about midnight last night without a peep.  I knew what happened only by Angel making some odd confusing noises and figured she was baffled by the "miraculous" appearance of a new charge.  She stood vigilantly by them the entire night though.  So now, in the midst of everything else, I'm milking a new goat 4 times a day.  She's not great on the stand yet.  More nervous than interested in food.  To narrow through the hips to make udder access easy.  Just all around, not that fun right now.  I'm also not sure how long we'll be without milk in the next year as the 3 present milkers dry off and we appropriately space their lactations now that the buck's "services" can be planned and prevented.

A couple days ago, the people we bought our bee hives from came by to give us a tutorial and check on the hives.  Turns out they've gone gangbusters in there and are already busting out of the original boxes.  We need to add a box to each hive pronto... meaning we need to build them first!  So tomorrow morning, Husbandman will ferociously build, tomorrow afternoon I will ferociously paint and Saturday we will quietly and calmly install.

A few days ago friends asked if we wanted some new chicks.  We did the math and decided,yes we could use some fresh layers to see us through the lean time this winter when daylight and molting could bring us to less than a half dozen a week.  So now we need to figure out which pen will be our brooder and then hold our growing birds... which means no pen is available to even buy some time with the young bunnies.

Then today, I popped on Craig's list (hoping to see a rabbit hutch for sale to save us the time and energy to build one) and found muscovy ducklings for sale locally.  I've never seen muscovy ducklings for sale!  Hatcheries require a huge order and a pretty penny each.  I asked the people selling if this was something they would likely keep on hand.  No such luck.  They're only available a couple times a year from hatcheries and they grabbed these on a whim.  So, this means we're probably going to be bringing home muscovies again rather soon.  We'll brood them in the dog crate until their ready for the old turkey pen outside in the pasture.  And one of those rabbit nest boxes I ordered will probably wind up a duck bath.

And those same friends that gave us Brownie, and asked if we wanted to order chicks with them also asked if we wanted a really nice Suffolk ewe.  Apparently this ewe has been shown at the county fair and has had 2 sets of twins in her 4 years of life.  Her present owners just want a good home for her.  So, we're now considering bringing on a new ewe that would have more likelihood of twinning and slaughtering both Nina and Daisy (knife to the heart twice!!!) this fall.  We don't want to overwinter 3 breeding ewes.  Should we take this ewe, we'd keep her and Esperanza for breeding (and of course Valentino too).

So guess what we're doing this weekend.

Yet Another

 Another sad day at Ziptie Ranch.  Julius died Sunday morning despite me, once again, doing everything I knew to save him.  He was never a strong kid.  He was born a bit later than his brother Jonah and initially was considerably weaker.  He was slow to get his legs under him the first day.  Then he was never a good eater.  He didn't suck, he merely gnawed at a bottle allowing milk to dribble into his mouth.  He didn't even suck on a finger so I'm not sure he would have even been able to drink water from a bucket.  His chin was always drenched after every feeding so I knew milk was running right out of his mouth too, but I never knew how much.  He never did the new goat gallivant.  As time progressed, Jonah pulled further and further ahead of him, but I still didn't think Julius's problems were fatal.  I had turned over the feeding of the kids to the 2-leggeds.  Farmer Girl and Farmer Boy 1 would always go running out with their bottles.  Farmer Boy 1 would always stay out there until Julius's bottle was empty, which often took a MUCH longer time than I had patience for.  But again, being that he's 3, that milk may have simply made it down his chin (or into Jonah's tummy) and not much into the intended belly.  After every interaction with Julius, I would come in only partly joking that "Julius has to be retarded."

Julius started appearing worse than "just Julius" on Wednesday.  I took over his feeding again and  was really surprised by his lack of "skill" to eat.  He seemed to even regress in the week since I had given that chore to the kids.  Thursday evening, Jonah was sold and Julius was launched into full-fledged depression.  Droopy ears and everything.  I put him in with Copper and Doby, but he just laid down in the sunshine and didn't move.  By Friday evening he wasn't standing properly.  I wondered about "bent leg syndrome" and started giving him cod liver oil, feeding him by syringe and giving vitamin B injections.  Since he was Helen's fifth kid in 3 complete pregnancies all crammed into 19 months of time, birth defects unfortunately could be rather expected.  We kept up the regime, adding vitamin C to the mix as well on Saturday and moved him into a sick bed on the porch where we could keep him warm and comfortable.  Early Sunday morning, I heard a little peep from him and was relieved to know he made it through the night.  But by the time his milk was warmed and I went to feed him, he was gone.

I spent a few hours, both before he died and after, trying to figure out what was ailing him.  I poured through my "Natural Goat Care" book and found nothing that really fit, including bent leg syndrome.  The author of this book does make note to not spend much time or resources saving unthrifty kids because nature usually knows better than we which ones can survive long-term.  I have a hard time with that, but I feel a bit less guilty with his death.  I think there was likely a non-visable birth defect that prevented him from eating properly.

In the end, I'm glad we've been able to keep Copper away from Helen.  She just came out of heat (at 3 weeks post pardem) so we only have another year's worth of heats to go through.  Hopefully the fence on the bachelor pad is up for the challenge.  I think that's really the only way we can prevent this in the future.

Jonah and Julius

We had another birth on Saturday.  Husbandman and I were out working on the "Bachelor Pad."  I had been expecting Helen to kid for 2 days so when I saw her go off to a secluded area of the pasture and lay down, I knew it was time.  Without a sound, a little goat was born.  I gave her ample time to clean it off and it seemed as though she were done.  Later a friend came to visit and we took him back to see the new addition... and there wasn't just one but TWO!  Both of them are bucks and both are identical.  One has an ever so slightly larger grew patch over his eyes than the other.  So we put a collar on one... which Farmer Girl named Jonah.  The other is Julius.  Now if this over-sized collar happens to fall off, then whichever one gets the collar will then become Jonah.  The kids are doing well.  The first afternoon, one was markedly weaker than the other, but by morning I couldn't tell which one that was so they must be fine.  They are eating well and are almost ready for the kids to take over their feedings.  Helen on the other hand is not milking well.  Granted we're still in the colostrum phase, but we're getting just over a quart a day from her who previously has given over a gallon.  I'll be milking 3 times a day to see if that will help.  I'm hoping to milk her for about 9-10 months so I really need her to start strong.  

 Copper's Bachelor pad is now finished.  We "finished" it last week only to find him back with his ladies the very next morning.  We "fixed it" again and again he was back within 24 hours.  Now we think we have him trapped.  He's been there for about a day and a half now so maybe we're safe.  We put Doby in with him to keep him company.  They're enjoying the browse while it lasts.

We're still waiting for Esperanza to lamb.  Nina was sucking on her the other day so it must be soon.  Then our babies will be done for the season.  Well, until Doby kids which could be in June or so.

Spring Sprang

I always seem to find myself here when I have multiple other things that are more pressing, but alas, I'm here so I'll make it quick.  :-)

 Yesterday I had a positively glorious time playing in the dirt, with at least 1 little helper most of the time.  We ripped out most of the arugula and some older lettuce, kale, collards, and mustard greens.  The goats were happy to take the cast offs from my sweet helpers' hands.  We filled multiple wheelbarrow loads with compost and refreshed the beds.  One particular bed ends up quite shaded in the winter.  I've had it covered with a billboard tarp since November.  I peeled back the tarp to find grey beach sand.  Nothing more.  I've been planting and ammending that bed for 3+ years now, and its still basically beach sand.  Its also no surprise to see roots like these on the mustard greens.   

The little blobs in the roots indicate nematodes, a horrible menace to the Florida gardener... and very little to realistically to about them.

So after ripping out the old plants, adding fresh compost and mixing it in some, we transplanted- something the farmer girl has really come to enjoy.  I love having her little hands working with me.  Farmer Boy 1 enjoys it too, but the temptation to pitch dirt in the air is sometimes too much for him to handle.  FB2 likes to just wander around the garden carrying off any tools someone else is using. 

We transplanted an entire bed of cayenne peppers (hoping to trade the fruit for a drink concotion that is helping several friends and family members), a good number of bell peppers, the last of the big tomatoes and lettuce, Black Valentine pole beans, huckleberries, wonderberries, cucumbers and eggplant. 

What remains in the garden now for today's eating are collard greens and lettuce.  What remains for seed production purposes are a few old lettuce plants, arugula and bok choy.  Aside from what's noted about as recently transplanted, we also have yellow squash, zucchini, bok choy, swiss chard and peas in the still-growing phase.  There are still a good number of things not quite ready to transplant, but more about those next week.

Next we planted seeds:

For the pretty patch: cosmos, marigolds, zinnias, morning glory and sunflowers.

For the eating: Sugarlee watermelon, Chinese Red noodle beans, cherry tomatoes (lollipop, sungold, and chocolate cherry), and basil (genovese, cinnamon, and lettuce leaf).

On the animal front, we sold Rocie and Poncho.  After not being able to sell Willy after weeks of having him posted on Craigs List, I started early this round... they were gone the first evening.  Truth be told, I wasn't quite ready.  When I got the call that the buyers were on their way, I quickly rounded up the kids for a photo shoot.   How many beautiful mornings had the kids been in there playing with them and though I'd stop to admire the abundance of cute, I never grabbed the camera.  These pics aren't too great as the light was fading and the goats were hungry (hence eating farmer girl's hair), but its something. 

Esperanza is still big but not looking particularly "due".  Helen is bagging up more so my guess is she's the next birth.  We'll be spending all day on Saturday on the "Bachelor Pad" despite the huge amount of gardening work to do.  A place to put Copper after Helen kids is essential.  She's had way too many babies too close together.  If we don't get the new section fenced we will simply have to find another home for Copper fast.  She got pregnant 4 weeks post-pardum last time.

Back to work now.  Thanks for the break in cleaning.  :-)

Livestock Life

 Today was the first day of the year where we tethered out the sheep.  Our front lawn looks a mite rough.

Not that looking rough isn't normal for us.

But having seeded the front lawn with rye grass then the chickens eating a majority of that grass, we have bright green patches of tall grass amongst the sea of brown.

Instead of dusting off the mower already, we set out the sheep and they were happy to work.

Valentino is standing tall and proud as the happy daddy of Nina and the lamb(s) making Esperanza so round.




I tried to get an upclose picture of the littlest kids on the 'stead.  They were adamant to climb me instead.  So I had to shoot pics through the fencing of their kennel.  When the bigger kids are outside feeding the little ones, I might be able to snag some better pictures.

The one with the black spots is the doeling, Rocie.  The one with small brown spots is the buckling, Poncho.



Nina taking an afternoon snooze.  Button looks content.



Our working girls.  Dulci (the white one) is giving a gallon of milk a day.  Helen is due in mid March.



Write the Vision

And the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it.  Habakkuk 2:2

And so I write out our plans for our little homestead.

For 2011 (with approximate completion time):  will strike through when completed.

1) Fence in the pasture common area (February)
2) Install inhabited beehives (March)
3) Plant several blackberry bushes and one more grape vine (April)
4)  Install new shaded herb bed (April)
5) Build fly/maggot traps for chicken feed (May) Husbandman drew the line at farming flies.
6) The Bachelor Pad- a separate fenced area to house our goat buck (May)
7) Build pens and fill them with meat rabbits for breeding (June)
8)Add removable plywood walls on the barn (as opposed to the present billboard tarp walls)- (December)
9) Install hay storage area over pump house (whenever) Decided that wasn't such a good idea... they'd maul us at each feeding.
For years beyond:

1) Add another partition to the pasture, one each year of 2012 and 2013, including separating and burning felled branches in each paddock.
2) Develop a grain patch to grow some of our own goat or chicken grain. (2014?)
3) Install a geothermal AC/heater (2012?) Removed from to-do list.  Not cost effective.
4) Clear to southern property line (2012)
5) Install a southern "fence" and plant blackberries and grapes along it. (2013) May be rethought with plans for a tree house.
6) Add muscovy ducks and/or turkeys (2012)
7) Clear area for garden expansion, expanding about 10-15' each year beginning in 2013.

Wee Willy Wishing

 Another lesson at the school of hard knocks... rip out ALL lantana that grows ANYWHERE.  Last Sunday night, Willy started screaming.  I got up and tromped outside expecting to find his collar hooked on the chain link of the kennel he shared with the sheep at night.  He was standing free but looking very anxious.  I remembered how earlier that day his ears drooped with what I thought was sadness.  He didn't eat much that day so I figured he was finally with friends again and hungry (the sheep had spent the weekend in the pasture where Willy was too small to he held behind the pasture fencing).  I fed him some beet pulp which he readily gobbled... or so I thought.  Later inspection showed he was only drinking the water out of it.  I left him free to wonder that night so as to not keep him from eating his choice or snuggling with the goats, but he continued to scream.  He finally settled down towards dawn.  Just after dawn I see Angel, the dog, pulling a limp Willy by the leg and nosing him, probably wondering why he's not playing with her.  I ran out to find Willy still alive, but very weak and his body temperature way below normal.  I set him in a laundry basket with a heating pad and towels and tried to get him to take a bottle of milk.  He wanted nothing.  He let out a slight groan here and there.  I gave him a shot of Vitamin B.  I wondered what happened to make him so sick.

Hours later I remembered. The prior Tuesday and Wednesday I had him tethered in an area where I knew there was lantana... but since it wasn't in bloom I had completely forgotten about it.  It was lush with grape vines, his favorite browse, so I never gave the lantana a second thought.  Until it was too late.  I found the plant, a big one, with only a precious few leaves left on it to even let me confirm its identity.  Willy, little tiny Willy, had eaten a LOT of lantana.

I hate to say this but I just waited for him to die.  Oddly enough, Monday afternoon he all of a sudden perked up and gobbled down a bottle of milk and another bottle of water.  I was so excited, so hopeful that I didn't just kill the sweetest goat we'd ever owned.  That hope was premature.  He was tucked into bed that night in the porch right next to our bedroom so I could easily hear him if he needed a midnight snack.  Tuesday he was back to not eating or drinking.  I read that even after symptoms of lantana poisoning go away, the animal still generally dies within 6 weeks because the liver and kidneys shut down.  My husband brought home some activated charcoal which I crammed down his throat.  Then, fearing dehydration from not drinking all day, I used a funnel to force water (with a bit of sea salt for electrolytes) into him.  I tucked him into his bed, that laundry basket with the heating pad.  Wednesday morning he was gone.

And now we remember what a great goat he was.  He often let the farm baby use him as a walker.  And when the baby was in the stroller and Willy was tired from playing, he'd curl up right at the baby's feet... maybe hoping to find a tiny toe to suck on.  He loved to play with the farm boy, especially when he had his bike!  He would jump and play all around it.  Farm boy didn't like it too much because he was often knocked right off.  Willy loved the farm girl the best.  She fed him most days and never seemed to mind him sucking her finger.  They'd dance together all over the driveway.  Those were fun days.  But he's buried in the pasture now.  Just last week I was trying to get him to stay in the pasture.  Now he'll never come out.  This is the one part of homesteading that never gets any easier.

And for your information, in my recent research I've learned that lantana is poisonous to EVERYTHING, not just livestock.  So that plant is definitely getting ripped out.  The berries are by far the most toxic part and my children absolutely delight in picking and eating random things growing around the property.  We have a rule that if its outside the garden, they have to ask first, but this is one rule I'm not going to risk them breaking.