Things go right, things go wrong. The things that stick with me are the things that go wrong. I've had some "challenges" at work this year. There is a lot to that word "challenges" I have had far too little time at home. Partly because of that we have lost several goats. 2 and 3 (the twins) 29 and one of her twins and one of 4's last years twins and she lost one of her own kids. I mean she LOST it. She was out there in the dogleg one late afternoon bellowing for it. Apparently it had gotten under the fence into the creek. The creek is dry this time of year so there was no danger from drowning, but the creekbed is to wildlife what IH-35 is to Texas. A relentless flow of uninterrupted traffic. The first time I went down there I found hundreds of burrows in the banks of the creek. Six inches to more than ten inches across it looked like little round apartments stacked from ground level to above my head in spots. I realized at that time why we lose so many chickens after several days of rain. When the creek gets full all those burrows are underwater. The creatures have to go somewhere and we are the local fast food spot. The Chicken Barn. All you can eat. We have had a challenging chicken year. There's that word again. We've lost maybe a dozen or more chickens to raccoons. Raccoons have a Modus Operandi with regards to chickens. They like to eat the heads first. So it's not terribly uncommon to stroll through the barn and find a chicken laying there peacefully with its head missing. We have had 2 broody hens taken right off their nests. The predator came back and ate the eggs too. All I found of her was a trail of feathers leading off into the woods.
We've lost 4 out of our 5 guineas. Walking through the garden one afternoon I found the head of one laying there in the grass. We bought 5 more pullets (young immature birds) to replace them. They're all gone now too.
We have had eggs eaten by snakes. I've caught a couple in the act this year. One ambitious rat snake had it's lips around our broody pea hen's egg. I grabbed the snake hoping I was right about the species, and carried it off to the creek to be turned loose on the baby raccoon population. Wishful thinking I think. We lost Pure-Cat. He was over 10 years old and kind of withered away. He died in the shed where he usually slept. He was buried along with so many other creatures in our pet cemetery.
Not to linger too long on the specter of dead farm animals, we have had some positive stuff happen too. We just picked up the last two of three full blood Boer goats from a breeder near Elgin. We have a 6 month old buck, a 3 year old Nanny and a 5 month old doe. We now get to set ourselves the task of building an enclosure that will hold a 300lb (eventually) male full of raging hormones. Those goats bring us to about 36. We'll get rid of our current buck (so he doesn't impregnate his daughters) and we can look forward to between 50 and 70 babies this Fall/Winter.
Current list of tasks needing to get done:
Build the Buck pen
Build a fully armed and shielded poultry house.
The spa's pump has sprung a leak and needs repairing.
There are some sections of electric fence that should be extended.
Replace the greenhouse panels with better, more resilient plastic.
Build more shelves for the greenhouse.
Build a new platform for the greenhouse rainwater collection tank (made more difficult due to the 250 gallons of water in it)
Repair the backyard fence, at least the sections that are falling over.
Extend water lines underground to the barnyard. Get rid of the hose that runs from the house.
Fix the electricity to the shed and to the pond.
Bring in rocks and logs for a goat play area. Great for keeping their hooves trimmed short.
Of course the driveway needs maintenance
Some trim pieces need replacing on the house
I still haven't done the home inspector's recommendations from when we bought the place.
Also I need to clean up the area behind the shed again. Maybe put down gravel or mulch to stop the weeds.
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