It is time for a rare vacation. With all our animals and things that MUST get done around here it's rare that we get away. But now is the time. We are off to California to visit family and see the sites along the way. (Oh! Look it's a wind farm! Must take awfully big seeds!). Planning for the trip began in September when we closed off the goats favorite fields to let them grow (the fields, not the goats). The goats will have plenty to eat, thus keeping them happy while we're gone. They get into less mischief when they're happy. We have a bunch of pregnant does but none are due until the end of January. 213 and Delores both have a history of miscarrying so all we can do is hope for the best there. They are both healthy, well fed and plump at the moment. This mornings tasks are to overfeed all the animals. Check everything one last time. Make sure all heaters are off, doors that should be closed are closed. Doors that should be open are open. Water connections aren't leaking and so on. Then we hit the road. First stop is Cooper's Pit Barbecue in Llano TX.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
muck yuck
Good god... you'd think that dirt couldn't GET into those secret places... and this is special dirt, the kind that's made from poop from particularly poopy goats. It's brown. And it is everywhere. Today, we mucked out the barn. I started in the morning and as any good Mark Twainian knows, you have to make it look like it's a lot of fun to get people envious of the crap work they need to help you out with. So I was Tom today and Mike was... you know, the other ones that fall for the whitewashing.
The drill: Rake all the crud out of the six available stalls and into the center section of the barn, so the tractor can come and scoop the dusty crap or crappy dust up and out of the barn, into a pile that will become compost at some point.
Then, once it's out of the barn, you replace the mucky shit with more hay. All the while having to fend off goats and such, chase chickens around and generally just keep the animals at bay. We opened up a field for the goats to eat and made sure they couldn't come back to the barn while we did this.
Then the work began -- when Mike used his tractor and scooped and re-located the crap, I moved the outer edges of dirt with a rake to the center of the barn again. Over and over and over and over and over. Oh, joy! My arms hurt!
Then it's off to Discount Feeds to pick up more hay and wormer (we wormed all the goats last week, but some have 'bottle jaw' and need it again).
So it's done. A chore that needs to be done more often than once a year, but it doesn't get done because we are doing a million other things.
Also, Mike re-attached the back barn door for me so that when it's really cold outside this winter, we can keep the little toesies of the goaties warm and cosy.
The drill: Rake all the crud out of the six available stalls and into the center section of the barn, so the tractor can come and scoop the dusty crap or crappy dust up and out of the barn, into a pile that will become compost at some point.
Then, once it's out of the barn, you replace the mucky shit with more hay. All the while having to fend off goats and such, chase chickens around and generally just keep the animals at bay. We opened up a field for the goats to eat and made sure they couldn't come back to the barn while we did this.
Then the work began -- when Mike used his tractor and scooped and re-located the crap, I moved the outer edges of dirt with a rake to the center of the barn again. Over and over and over and over and over. Oh, joy! My arms hurt!
Then it's off to Discount Feeds to pick up more hay and wormer (we wormed all the goats last week, but some have 'bottle jaw' and need it again).
So it's done. A chore that needs to be done more often than once a year, but it doesn't get done because we are doing a million other things.
Also, Mike re-attached the back barn door for me so that when it's really cold outside this winter, we can keep the little toesies of the goaties warm and cosy.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Well. It's been a while
Since the last post. Far too long as has been pointed out. I had no idea anyone read this.
Of course there have been more snake incidents during the spring and summer. New species have been discovered. One particularly aggressive snake I dispatched with my shovel. I usually don't kill snakes as they are beneficial. I've even moved rattlesnakes away from the house (ever try to balance a ticked off rattler on the end of a pruning saw? I thought not) to let them kill rats. Anyway I had been out looking around for a missing goesling. I finally found it dead in its wading pool. This is a small plastic kiddy wading pool that we got at walmart for $30.00. It is a big step up for the geese as what we had before was 1/3 of a plastic 50 gallon barrel. They really do love their pool. After removing the gosling I proceeded to clean out the pool. When I went to dump it over, coiled up underneath was a snake of a type I hadn't seen before. While some types of snakes I'll just grab and move away from the house or barn, new species get looked up first just in case. This one was aggressive. I was balancing the pool with two hands and trying to nudge the snake with my boot. It would strike at my shoe repeatedly. Then it flattened it's neck just the same way that a cobra does. Now I knew it wasn't a cobra, because I wasn't in India. I checked. But I didn't want to take any chances. Dead gosling plus snake striking boot equals dead snake. I took the carcass back to the house to try and find out what type it is. My snake books were of little help. Snakes can vary a lot in coloring and pattern even among the same species. For example corn snakes can be all kinds of colors from brown to bright yellow. Rat snakes that we have in abundance here vary in tones of brown and gray with bold or subtle patterns. Experts will count the scales under the chin or where ever to determine the exact type of snake. I wan't going to hold up a snake that was trying to bite me to count it's scales. Anyway I located an expert at snake ID's online and he got back to me right away and told me what I had was an Eastern Hog nosed snake. Beneficial alas. When cornered they will strike but otherwise they are harmless. Next time I'll know.
Aside from the hog nose snake and of course our common rat snakes there was one other new slitherer that made an appearance this summer. This one Kristi discovered in our little goldfish pond. After she calmed down following the initial discovery we captured it and looked it up. It's called a Blotched Water Snake. After capture and identification we turned it loose near the creek (which has been bone dry since 2007) Of course the snake made its way back to the pond and as far as we know it's still in there. We found a shed skin a few weeks ago. It makes cleaning out the pond filter more of an adventure than is used to be.
Goats are doing well. The usual cycle of worming them occasionally, feeding hay, listen to them yell for us to feed them continues on. Circumventing our elaborate fencing systems remains their favorite hobby. Earlier this week we had a fine time recalling the whole herd from our neighbor's field after they had found a weak spot in our flood damaged fence in the Dog-Leg. We lure them with a vigorously shaken bucket of grain. A bucket of grain, the goats love above all other foods besides our landscaping. This brought the adults running. The herd instinct (which is a great thing when we can make use of it) brought the kids running. A few of the little ones failed to follow the adults to the correct opening in the fence and went down the fence line on the wrong side of the fence. This meant that I got to go over the fence into the creek to try and herd them back. The woods along the creek are very thick, nearly impossible for 6'3 me to get through and it's exactly the type of terrain that goats are bred for. So who's going to win? Me because I am more stubborn. Kristi distracted the goats from the outside of the fence by touching the electric top wire and screaming. 4000 volts gets your attention. While she was settling down I grabbed one of the little ones and passed it over the top of the fence to her. I was laughing because as I was passing the kid over it was biting off leaves and chewing. You'd think it would have been a little stressed. Kristi managed to grab another one by the tail and pulled it out over the fence.
Raccoons are a fierce predator on the farm and we don't mess with them like trying to scare them away. A sure way of being rid of them it to shoot them. A couple of weeks ago I was awake at about 2am and I could hear the dog food bucket lid fall off. I knew Barbecue didn't do that kind of thing, being without opposable thumbs . I got a flashlight and went looking around. Sure enough there was a raccoon in the tree behind the house. All we need is for a raccoon to get into the chicken coop again! They killed over a dozen of our birds and our first peacock. I went to get my rifle and Kristi had awakened. I got her up to hold the flashlight for me. By the time we got back to the tree it was in I couldn't find it. Took about 15 minutes of searching but finally we could see its eyes shining in the flashlight beam. In my underwear ( didn't have time to go get dressed) I went out to where I could get a shot at it. I couldn't see it in the tree at all. Just it's eyes shining. I aimed in between and fired. It took a second and I thought I'd missed, but then it came crashing out of the tree and thudded on the ground. I'd hit it right through the forehead. The bullet had come out at the right ear, so it had been looking at Kristi's light when I got it. We put it in a bucket until the morning so the dog wouldn't get it.
A day goes by and we're working on the everlasting deck project in the afternoon. There are a lot of annoying flys buzzing around. Occasionally we can smell something foul. Then Kristi finds the bloated raccoon in the bucket. PHEW! Burial detail!! Can't believe I was that stupid to forget about it.
This summer has been the hottest on record. Over 100 days of 100 degrees or more. Hard to get a lot of outdoor work done. Yet Kristi managed to plant hundreds of tomato plants, pepper plants, herbs and all kinds of other things. She also watered them all almost every day in the hottest part of the day after work. It's too bad we don't have gold medals to give out. She also planted dozens of gourd vines. They are doing spectacularly well with many bushel gourds of almost 2 feet in diameter. They'll be ready for harvest right around the first frost.
Kristi is getting plants ready for the fall garden.
We've been eating more vegetables and fruit this year, less meat and little to no dairy. As a result Kristi has lost 32 lbs and I have lost 37. We both have a bit more to go.
Of course there have been more snake incidents during the spring and summer. New species have been discovered. One particularly aggressive snake I dispatched with my shovel. I usually don't kill snakes as they are beneficial. I've even moved rattlesnakes away from the house (ever try to balance a ticked off rattler on the end of a pruning saw? I thought not) to let them kill rats. Anyway I had been out looking around for a missing goesling. I finally found it dead in its wading pool. This is a small plastic kiddy wading pool that we got at walmart for $30.00. It is a big step up for the geese as what we had before was 1/3 of a plastic 50 gallon barrel. They really do love their pool. After removing the gosling I proceeded to clean out the pool. When I went to dump it over, coiled up underneath was a snake of a type I hadn't seen before. While some types of snakes I'll just grab and move away from the house or barn, new species get looked up first just in case. This one was aggressive. I was balancing the pool with two hands and trying to nudge the snake with my boot. It would strike at my shoe repeatedly. Then it flattened it's neck just the same way that a cobra does. Now I knew it wasn't a cobra, because I wasn't in India. I checked. But I didn't want to take any chances. Dead gosling plus snake striking boot equals dead snake. I took the carcass back to the house to try and find out what type it is. My snake books were of little help. Snakes can vary a lot in coloring and pattern even among the same species. For example corn snakes can be all kinds of colors from brown to bright yellow. Rat snakes that we have in abundance here vary in tones of brown and gray with bold or subtle patterns. Experts will count the scales under the chin or where ever to determine the exact type of snake. I wan't going to hold up a snake that was trying to bite me to count it's scales. Anyway I located an expert at snake ID's online and he got back to me right away and told me what I had was an Eastern Hog nosed snake. Beneficial alas. When cornered they will strike but otherwise they are harmless. Next time I'll know.
Aside from the hog nose snake and of course our common rat snakes there was one other new slitherer that made an appearance this summer. This one Kristi discovered in our little goldfish pond. After she calmed down following the initial discovery we captured it and looked it up. It's called a Blotched Water Snake. After capture and identification we turned it loose near the creek (which has been bone dry since 2007) Of course the snake made its way back to the pond and as far as we know it's still in there. We found a shed skin a few weeks ago. It makes cleaning out the pond filter more of an adventure than is used to be.
Goats are doing well. The usual cycle of worming them occasionally, feeding hay, listen to them yell for us to feed them continues on. Circumventing our elaborate fencing systems remains their favorite hobby. Earlier this week we had a fine time recalling the whole herd from our neighbor's field after they had found a weak spot in our flood damaged fence in the Dog-Leg. We lure them with a vigorously shaken bucket of grain. A bucket of grain, the goats love above all other foods besides our landscaping. This brought the adults running. The herd instinct (which is a great thing when we can make use of it) brought the kids running. A few of the little ones failed to follow the adults to the correct opening in the fence and went down the fence line on the wrong side of the fence. This meant that I got to go over the fence into the creek to try and herd them back. The woods along the creek are very thick, nearly impossible for 6'3 me to get through and it's exactly the type of terrain that goats are bred for. So who's going to win? Me because I am more stubborn. Kristi distracted the goats from the outside of the fence by touching the electric top wire and screaming. 4000 volts gets your attention. While she was settling down I grabbed one of the little ones and passed it over the top of the fence to her. I was laughing because as I was passing the kid over it was biting off leaves and chewing. You'd think it would have been a little stressed. Kristi managed to grab another one by the tail and pulled it out over the fence.
Raccoons are a fierce predator on the farm and we don't mess with them like trying to scare them away. A sure way of being rid of them it to shoot them. A couple of weeks ago I was awake at about 2am and I could hear the dog food bucket lid fall off. I knew Barbecue didn't do that kind of thing, being without opposable thumbs . I got a flashlight and went looking around. Sure enough there was a raccoon in the tree behind the house. All we need is for a raccoon to get into the chicken coop again! They killed over a dozen of our birds and our first peacock. I went to get my rifle and Kristi had awakened. I got her up to hold the flashlight for me. By the time we got back to the tree it was in I couldn't find it. Took about 15 minutes of searching but finally we could see its eyes shining in the flashlight beam. In my underwear ( didn't have time to go get dressed) I went out to where I could get a shot at it. I couldn't see it in the tree at all. Just it's eyes shining. I aimed in between and fired. It took a second and I thought I'd missed, but then it came crashing out of the tree and thudded on the ground. I'd hit it right through the forehead. The bullet had come out at the right ear, so it had been looking at Kristi's light when I got it. We put it in a bucket until the morning so the dog wouldn't get it.
A day goes by and we're working on the everlasting deck project in the afternoon. There are a lot of annoying flys buzzing around. Occasionally we can smell something foul. Then Kristi finds the bloated raccoon in the bucket. PHEW! Burial detail!! Can't believe I was that stupid to forget about it.
This summer has been the hottest on record. Over 100 days of 100 degrees or more. Hard to get a lot of outdoor work done. Yet Kristi managed to plant hundreds of tomato plants, pepper plants, herbs and all kinds of other things. She also watered them all almost every day in the hottest part of the day after work. It's too bad we don't have gold medals to give out. She also planted dozens of gourd vines. They are doing spectacularly well with many bushel gourds of almost 2 feet in diameter. They'll be ready for harvest right around the first frost.
Kristi is getting plants ready for the fall garden.
We've been eating more vegetables and fruit this year, less meat and little to no dairy. As a result Kristi has lost 32 lbs and I have lost 37. We both have a bit more to go.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Prickly Pear
Are a type of cactus that grows wild throughout Texas. Mostly at our place. We have literally tons of it. We had a flood on March 12th 2007 after 9 inches of rain in one day. That flood broke up the cactus and spread it all over the acreage resulting in thousands of plants growing. Needle-ss to say it can be a nuisance. Two years later we have a problem and need to get rid of it. Our plan is to dig them up one at a time with pitchforks (the organic method) and relocate them where we need fencing. Organic fences! What will we think of next?
Goats are clever animals. You watch them and they peacefully mind their own business which is eating browse (plants, shrubs, trees and reluctantly grass and weeds) Contrary to the stereotype, goats are fussy eaters and will turn up their noses at anything that doesn't look tasty. Only the most expensive hay will be eaten. Only the tastiest plants. The tastiest plants of all are the ones that they aren't supposed to be able to get to. Those plants are also the most expensive and require backbreaking labor to put in. Specifically, landscaping and the vegetable gardens. The goats will risk their lives to get a few mouthfuls of the garden.
Our craftiest goat is 12. She will eat grass until she sees you turn your back, then WHAM! She's through the fence and eating the tomato plants. She gives no thought that tomatoes are nightshades and therefore will make her sick, she just knows that they are forbidden and so are the tastiest plants of all. It is for goats like 12 that we are making our cactus fence.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Collecting eggs can be hazardous.
Mike found this 4.5 foot-long rat snake on top of the nesting boxes in the chicken coop yesterday. He just picked it up, put it in a feed bag and came and got me and the camera. After taking pictures we released it into the creek area - and of course, it climbed the first tree it could to get away from us. Mike said it bit him and peed on him (the smell of snake piss, apparently, isn't very pleasant). Just part of life.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Mom and Pop Bewick flight train their litte ones.
The wonderful, loud, wary Bewicks wrens had flight training yesterday! The four or five kids were all on a big tree by our back deck, with Mom and Pop Bewick carefully teaching them that when you fall out of a tree, you just fly back up to it. They fed the little ones while training. What great coaches! The wrens were also being taught to check out the nooks and crannies for food, as well.
This is the first time that Mike and I have witnessed the nest-building, then the egg-sitting and the hatching all the way to the flight training. One egg remains in the nest, but I'm guessing it's not fertile. I will keep that one for the cabinet of curiosities - along with the bluebird's egg from a few years ago.
In other news, Recoil (our only balls-intact buck) got stuck in a tree again. Mike found him yesterday.
So I finish opening my mail and my back is hurting so I go lie down. Every
once in a while I hear a goat yelling. It's loud and I got up twice looking
through the barnyard to see who's lost her kids. It's an unusual voice so I
think it's 205. But she's there. I hear the yell again and several goats
get up and look out back. I put my boots on and went out to look around.
As I walk around the fence behind the back yard with the goats following me
thinking I'm taking them somewhere special, I see a weird and distressing
site. Recoil is on his back on the ground completely upside down with all
his legs up in the air. One leg is caught between two trees! He's in the far
back woods so I ran out to the new gate and got to him. I was able to pull
the two trees apart and his leg slipped out. I'm thinking it's broken
because he can't even touch the ground with it. There are no poops on the
ground but there's hair stuck in all the adjacent trees. So he'd been
twisting and turning to get out. He was breathing very rapidly in a lot of
pain. I slowly walked away calling him and he came towards me on 3 legs.
He must have that walk perfected by now. Brisket was helping by trying to
mount his rear. The other goats were going out towards the dog leg and he
hobbled towards them. I went and got a scoop of my pregnant goat mix for
him and by the time I got back he was with the girls who were all coming
back. So they got fed early today and I threw in some apple treats and beet
greens. Recoil got his share and while he's still limping, he's getting
along okay.
This is the first time that Mike and I have witnessed the nest-building, then the egg-sitting and the hatching all the way to the flight training. One egg remains in the nest, but I'm guessing it's not fertile. I will keep that one for the cabinet of curiosities - along with the bluebird's egg from a few years ago.
In other news, Recoil (our only balls-intact buck) got stuck in a tree again. Mike found him yesterday.
So I finish opening my mail and my back is hurting so I go lie down. Every
once in a while I hear a goat yelling. It's loud and I got up twice looking
through the barnyard to see who's lost her kids. It's an unusual voice so I
think it's 205. But she's there. I hear the yell again and several goats
get up and look out back. I put my boots on and went out to look around.
As I walk around the fence behind the back yard with the goats following me
thinking I'm taking them somewhere special, I see a weird and distressing
site. Recoil is on his back on the ground completely upside down with all
his legs up in the air. One leg is caught between two trees! He's in the far
back woods so I ran out to the new gate and got to him. I was able to pull
the two trees apart and his leg slipped out. I'm thinking it's broken
because he can't even touch the ground with it. There are no poops on the
ground but there's hair stuck in all the adjacent trees. So he'd been
twisting and turning to get out. He was breathing very rapidly in a lot of
pain. I slowly walked away calling him and he came towards me on 3 legs.
He must have that walk perfected by now. Brisket was helping by trying to
mount his rear. The other goats were going out towards the dog leg and he
hobbled towards them. I went and got a scoop of my pregnant goat mix for
him and by the time I got back he was with the girls who were all coming
back. So they got fed early today and I threw in some apple treats and beet
greens. Recoil got his share and while he's still limping, he's getting
along okay.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Angry young wren
There's nothing like an angry mob - except maybe an angry young wren -- a Bewick's wren that laid her eggs in a finely-built nest just outside the back door. Her little hatchlings are under her and BOY is she not happy about being photographed.
And Mike had the nerve to want to capture that Kodak moment.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sore, Spring, Sore, Planting, Sore muscles
Picture of a roadrunner. We have a daily roadrunner who crosses our fields and has a nest close by. He came within six feet of us while we were watching the goats last night.
---
Everything's sore. We had the last 'freeze-like' weather on Saturday (brrrr), so planting on Sunday commenced well, but digging holes, lugging compost around, pulling hoses and running the goats out of the OTHER garden area... then putting up a fence to supplement the fence that's supposed to be keeping them out... We're sore. Oh, yeah. I also ran the chipper/shredder and mulched a bunch of generic branches from the forested area... lugging it all into the barnyard (flattest, safest place to run the shredder). Wheeeee.
And Mike went further, putting our newly-acquired 18-foot boards on the 18-foot trailer we bought to move us into Coyote Ridge about ten years ago. They needed replacing, but we bought one too few, so we'll have to order ONE board again from Lowe's. Grrr..
Had a nice weekend, though, and got a lot done. Just put an ad on Craig's list to sell our Cabrito goats. We now have 48 goats (sold three females to a neighbor this past week).
We need to get down to 35 goats, our minimum for keeping our Ag exemption. "7 units" which equals 7 cows or 35 goats.
We're both getting over the flu from earlier this month. It has taken a toll on both of us and this weekend was the first time we got out and did stuff we really needed to do.
It was also our last fireplace fire until next year.
Projects to do:
Replace fence around backyard with cedar posts.
Rebuild fence in dogleg.
Put fence down to creek in hidden area.
Move fence to incorporate more of the forested area so the goats can eat more.
Put gate in backyard when we redo the fence.
Clean out barn
Deck (in process)
Replace siding on top of split level on house.
Paint house
Re-do the hay feeders
And there's more, but even my brain is tired.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
I still have a lingering flu. Just down to a raspy cough now and I don't have my usual energy. 10 days of this is too long. Kristi is still enjoying her new car. It's actually pleasant to get into unlike her old one. We've been having problems with many goats getting into the front yard. Can't really blame them, there is fresh green out there to eat. The opposite of everywhere else around here. At least we've had a couple of inches of precious rain this weekend. The electric fence is showing 4 bars. That's about 4000 volts. Enough for a painful jolt. So why are the goats getting through it? I think it could be that they are getting through from the garden fence. The garden fence between the garden and front yard isn't charged. So I may have to connect it up tomorrow and get the goats trained to avoid the front yard. Geese are laying eggs. The peahen hasn't which is making me wonder if she's okay. She would usually have laid about a dozen by now and then a dozen in a month or so. She seems okay but... I haven't seen any rats in the tack room for 3 days. But they are still there. I've seen a couple racing along the horizontal stringers in the barn. I need to get rid of them before we buy our next pallet of feed. They made a huge mess out of the last pallet and wasted a lot of grain. Kristi found a dead snake in front of the greenhouse this afternoon. Probably compliments of one of the cats. Kristi tossed it to the chickens for protien. Nothing gets wasted here. I had to untangle 2 more goats from the hay feeder in the barn. They push their heads all the way through and their horns get caught. This is one of 4000 things on my ToDo list. Replace the hay feeders. I'm on it! Cooked my corned beef today. Came out perfect. 3 weeks in brine and spices in the fridge and now it's preserved and tasty. All ready for St Patties day. I wonder what corned goat would taste like. Hmmmmm.
Friday, March 06, 2009
Bad day, but it's Friday
Okay, so last weekend, I bought a car. I had to. My mother's car, a 16-year-old Chevy Corsica, died on 71 and I pushed it off the road. They towed it to my mechanic, he declared its total death and now I had no way of getting around.
For one day, while one of Mike's work trucks (my vehicle for a few days) was in the shop, I rented a car from Enterprise -- a Mazda 6, 2009 variety. I fell in love with it and so I got one. It's a very fine car and much better than last year's mazdas and the years before that.
It's been fun to drive.
Why is today a bad day, then? Because Mike's sick -- got the flu bug, I think, and is probably still sleeping, even though it's late. He rarely gets sick, but when he does, it's a doozy.
I bought him some cold/flu medicine on the way home yesterday and I hope that's going to help. He just seems so... helpless, though. I don't know.
For one day, while one of Mike's work trucks (my vehicle for a few days) was in the shop, I rented a car from Enterprise -- a Mazda 6, 2009 variety. I fell in love with it and so I got one. It's a very fine car and much better than last year's mazdas and the years before that.
It's been fun to drive.
Why is today a bad day, then? Because Mike's sick -- got the flu bug, I think, and is probably still sleeping, even though it's late. He rarely gets sick, but when he does, it's a doozy.
I bought him some cold/flu medicine on the way home yesterday and I hope that's going to help. He just seems so... helpless, though. I don't know.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sunday past (Feb 22), we slaughtered another goat and packaged it, then stuck it in the freezer. We've done this before (there are photos in a previous post), but this time, I wanted to save the hide so that I could learn how to 'process' it. I should say, MIKE killed it, skinned it and butchered it.
It is currently soaking in wood ash and water after waiting the twenty-four hours in a pure water bath. I opted to tan it, versus making something with hair on it. The goat wasn't that purty and I just wanted to practice tanning a hide. No, I'm not pissing on it or using goat brains to tan it.
The process begins with the four or five day soak in the ash-water (produces lye) to get the skin off the hide. Then I will scrape the fat membrane and any remaining meat off the back of it, turn it over and then scrape the hair off of the hide, as well. The lye process softens the hide and allows me to take the fur off with a scraper.
The things that we need to do next time:
It is currently soaking in wood ash and water after waiting the twenty-four hours in a pure water bath. I opted to tan it, versus making something with hair on it. The goat wasn't that purty and I just wanted to practice tanning a hide. No, I'm not pissing on it or using goat brains to tan it.
The process begins with the four or five day soak in the ash-water (produces lye) to get the skin off the hide. Then I will scrape the fat membrane and any remaining meat off the back of it, turn it over and then scrape the hair off of the hide, as well. The lye process softens the hide and allows me to take the fur off with a scraper.
The things that we need to do next time:
- Have two sharp knives, not just one.
- Make sure the goat is high enough to work on without breaking Mike's back.
- Figure out a hanging method that works. We used a branch of the tree in the backyard, but I was afraid it would break with the weight of a hundred-lb goat on it and us tugging the skin off and pulling it down in doing so.
- Make sure we always do this in colder weather.
- Keep hay on hand to cover the wheelbarrow underneath the goat so that when the guts are freed and tumble into the wheelbarrow, that they can be covered up with hay to keep the flies away.
- Keep the dog out of the backyard. She was a nuisance while we were working on the carcass.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
In the last three days, we've lost two goats -- one for unknown reasons... wait, make that three.
Yesterday evening, I was 'watering the geese' which means turning on a faucet near where we are going to plant grapes this year, and heard a most distressing goat yell. I looked toward the sound and saw a kid lying on the dirt and ran to it. Mike was in the barn, familiarizing the new kids by picking them up.
The wounded kid, whose parentage we'll have to discover this evening, seemed to have a broken neck. It was leaning its head back as far as it could and at first, of course, I thought it was dying.
I yelled for Mike and he came, picked the kid up and brought it into the house (standard operating goat procedure). It had been raining a bit and the kid was filthy with sand. We washed it off in the sink and dried it, put it on some towels and gave it some aspirin with some milk. This year, we purchased a kid-saver -- a handy device that has a long tube that we can snake down into a kid's stomach to give it food. We did this twice in the evening. It didn't save it.
Mike said that the kid gave a final yell and squirmed a lot around1am in the morning, and that was the end of it.
But now comes the question.. HOW did it get into such bad shape? We are, at the moment suspecting our livestock guardian dog, Brisket. The only reason for this is that he has been known to chase the kid goats around unmercifully and yesterday, Mike saved an armadillo that Brisket had in his mouth and was shaking the poor creature as hard as he could.
So we think that Brisket was full of himself and had shaken this kid until the kid's neck was broken. The sounds from the kid were not of the kind of distress sounds from a goat with stomach problems. These were pain sounds, uncomfortable pain.
But there are other options. The kid could have been thrown by one of the adult goats for simply being in the way or trying to drink milk from the wrong mom. We don't know.
But then again, we think Brisket did this to a chicken this past year... playing with it and slobbering all over it before the chicken just died (probably a heart attack).
Hard to tell, but if this is the case, we're going to have to put the dog down. He won't make a good livestock guardian and he is definitely not suitable as a pet.
This was not a good day.
We now have:
52 goats (of which, only one is a milk goat)
6 geese
9 guineas
60 chickens
2 cats
2 dogs
Yesterday evening, I was 'watering the geese' which means turning on a faucet near where we are going to plant grapes this year, and heard a most distressing goat yell. I looked toward the sound and saw a kid lying on the dirt and ran to it. Mike was in the barn, familiarizing the new kids by picking them up.
The wounded kid, whose parentage we'll have to discover this evening, seemed to have a broken neck. It was leaning its head back as far as it could and at first, of course, I thought it was dying.
I yelled for Mike and he came, picked the kid up and brought it into the house (standard operating goat procedure). It had been raining a bit and the kid was filthy with sand. We washed it off in the sink and dried it, put it on some towels and gave it some aspirin with some milk. This year, we purchased a kid-saver -- a handy device that has a long tube that we can snake down into a kid's stomach to give it food. We did this twice in the evening. It didn't save it.
Mike said that the kid gave a final yell and squirmed a lot around1am in the morning, and that was the end of it.
But now comes the question.. HOW did it get into such bad shape? We are, at the moment suspecting our livestock guardian dog, Brisket. The only reason for this is that he has been known to chase the kid goats around unmercifully and yesterday, Mike saved an armadillo that Brisket had in his mouth and was shaking the poor creature as hard as he could.
So we think that Brisket was full of himself and had shaken this kid until the kid's neck was broken. The sounds from the kid were not of the kind of distress sounds from a goat with stomach problems. These were pain sounds, uncomfortable pain.
But there are other options. The kid could have been thrown by one of the adult goats for simply being in the way or trying to drink milk from the wrong mom. We don't know.
But then again, we think Brisket did this to a chicken this past year... playing with it and slobbering all over it before the chicken just died (probably a heart attack).
Hard to tell, but if this is the case, we're going to have to put the dog down. He won't make a good livestock guardian and he is definitely not suitable as a pet.
This was not a good day.
We now have:
52 goats (of which, only one is a milk goat)
6 geese
9 guineas
60 chickens
2 cats
2 dogs
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Kidding Season is almost over...
Just about a half hour ago (about 9pm), 205 kidded. Beautiful twins. One with a dark tail. That's three with dark tails this year and that's odd, since we've never had any... at all.
And so, over the last two weeks, we've had 23 kids, four of them died, and 19 survived. We're lousy with kids, now.
Yawwwwnnnn... We're both tired.
Good night.
And so, over the last two weeks, we've had 23 kids, four of them died, and 19 survived. We're lousy with kids, now.
Yawwwwnnnn... We're both tired.
Good night.
And another
Friday (the 30th), 216 kidded... but we weren't there (out picking up feed and other stuff) and one of the twins she bore died... it was born with the pileus still around its body and probably suffocated in it. Mike and I are very sad when these things happen to our goats... we weren't there but should have been to remove the caul and let the kid breathe. But we can't always be home.
But the other one, the one that survived is doing well.
Yesterday, we cleaned the barn's walls (filled with nasty, dusty cobweb-like things and just plain dirt) and did maintenance to the stalls like attaching new wire on some of them. Mike also fixed and affixed the four feeders we bought last month and installed them on the doors of the stalls. I put wire on the outside of them so that goats couldn't get to the feeders from the outside. They all can eat side-by-side, now. I hope.
But in the process of doing a lot of work in the barn, Mike left the stall door open (not latched) and early this morning, apparently, when he went to unstick yet another kid that got stuck in the hay feeder, many goats were milling about 216's stall, probably eating all her hay and feed, as well. Her release date wasn't until Monday (three days to allow moms to recover and to bond with their kid(s) is the norm).
This morning, all the goats seemed to take their kids out and around to the dogleg -- you could see the newly-born ones jumping and running around like crazy. It's a great time of year for us.
But the other one, the one that survived is doing well.
Yesterday, we cleaned the barn's walls (filled with nasty, dusty cobweb-like things and just plain dirt) and did maintenance to the stalls like attaching new wire on some of them. Mike also fixed and affixed the four feeders we bought last month and installed them on the doors of the stalls. I put wire on the outside of them so that goats couldn't get to the feeders from the outside. They all can eat side-by-side, now. I hope.
But in the process of doing a lot of work in the barn, Mike left the stall door open (not latched) and early this morning, apparently, when he went to unstick yet another kid that got stuck in the hay feeder, many goats were milling about 216's stall, probably eating all her hay and feed, as well. Her release date wasn't until Monday (three days to allow moms to recover and to bond with their kid(s) is the norm).
This morning, all the goats seemed to take their kids out and around to the dogleg -- you could see the newly-born ones jumping and running around like crazy. It's a great time of year for us.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
But wait! There's even MORE!!!
Just before getting up, I can hear our dogs and other dogs howling in the distance.
Mike says, "I hear a new kid".
"You're hearing coyotes or dogs."
"Every once in a while I can hear it."
I can't. I am in disbelief. But when he goes out in the 26-degree weather to feed the animals, I sense he may be right. But I'd never tell him.
I prepare our lunches and coffee and clean up the kitchen a bit for the afternoon when we both return from work.
He comes in twenty minutes later.
"I was right. Twins. They're beautiful. They look like Boer, not like 9 or her other kids."
That makes sixteen healthy kids, now, and three more nannies who will be kidding soon! Gah!
Mike says, "I hear a new kid".
"You're hearing coyotes or dogs."
"Every once in a while I can hear it."
I can't. I am in disbelief. But when he goes out in the 26-degree weather to feed the animals, I sense he may be right. But I'd never tell him.
I prepare our lunches and coffee and clean up the kitchen a bit for the afternoon when we both return from work.
He comes in twenty minutes later.
"I was right. Twins. They're beautiful. They look like Boer, not like 9 or her other kids."
That makes sixteen healthy kids, now, and three more nannies who will be kidding soon! Gah!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
barn creature pics
<--Blank - "pfffthhhhh" (just look at that tongue)
Mike and one of 17's kids. --->
<--19 with her new kid. and below, six and her new kid. 
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Keep 'em comin'
Oh, boy.When Mike and I went to work this morning, there were no more kids... but he just arrived home and went to look in the barn.
19 had her kid (first picture)... a big one! We've had her 'put away' for about a week so that she could kid and she's been giving us false signs for a while.
Blank had her kids - the first trips that actually look like they're going to survive. She was about the size of the side of the barn, so this is good.. but she had them in the wooded area.
While Mike's on the phone with me telling me this, he also says that he can't find 215. She was due as well -- then he sees her and says,
"two more! they look just fine!" (also in the wooded area) And Brisket was defending her against Mike. At least the dog's doing his job.Sunday, January 25, 2009
A kid bleats loudly, waking us both up at around 5:45 this morning.
"Stuck kid or lost?"
"Dunno." He puts on his robe and shoes and goes out to the barn. Then I hear his feet coming back a minute or two later, more quickly.
"Get up. Delores had triplets. One's dead. She's in the middle of the entrance to the barn."
Okay. Clothes first, and I grab some for Mike, too. He's getting stuff in the kitchen for Delores - probably molasses water at this point. I dress quickly and we take towels out to the kids. We have to get them into a stall along with Mom so that the other goats don't trample them. Delores was already defending them against Brisket, so that was a good sign. We needed more good signs, though.
One of the kids seemed dead, but wasn't. It was the smallest, probably not weighing more than ten ounces or so. It died about ten minutes after it was born.
We left the other two with her in a stall- the one that was screaming was the healthiest and largest of the three, but still very weak and not able to stand. Delores, while Mike was heating goat milk, would not deal with her kids and seemed very hungry. That's all she really cared about was eating so we thought that giving her as much grain as she wanted would help her to go back to her kids and start taking care of them. Mike tried to get both of them to drink from Delores' teat, but nothing doing. Neither kid wanted to.
I had already wiped the smaller of the two with a towel, but the other one was still quite wet. So it seemed like Delores had everything under control and we left. We ate breakfast and read the newspaper, then went out again.
This time, things were a little different. The littlest goat was barely moving and the other one was still quite wet. Delores, despite having stolen a kid from another goat last year, just wasn't interested in these. We took both of them into the house and sat by the fire to warm them up. We cleaned them and gave them some formula that was frozen from last year.
But the littlest one wouldn't do much but breathe... and Mike gave it milk, but the kid wasn't destined for this life. The other one I fed successfully and dried off. It has a healthy set of lungs and will be a screamer. These are both male.
After the littlest one died (pictured), we took the healthier one (above) and cleaned it more, then put it back into the stall with Delores. She nosed it, and I really wondered if she would accept it back. She was crying for her kids when we left and when we came back to the barn with it. We put it on the ground in the stall and she held her nose to it. I think that's just how they get the kid warm. She also tried to nuzzle it to see if it would stand and eat, but nothing doing. I think, at this point, it was exhausted from our terrorizing efforts of trying to keep it alive. I also think it will survive, but it will take some encouragement and the ability to stand - to be able to reach Delores' teat.
And did we expect Delores to kid? To have TRIPLETS? Hell, no. But this has definitely been a surprising kidding season and it's only just begun.
And Mike says,
"It feels like we've already had a full day."
"You didn't expect to get anything DONE today, did you?"
Just wait 'til all the rest pop - all at once, all while we're out somewhere leading our lives.
THIS JUST IN: - We went to sleep for an hour and what happens? We both get up to new screaming. At first I thought it was Delores' kid, but then Mike went out and, again, came
back -- but in less of a hurry. Two more kids from 71. She'd been in labor when we were out there, apparently, and had two beautiful kids - one buck, one doe.That's ten. Five today and five on the 19th of January.
We tested Delores' nipple and found that it squirts well. We put the kid up to it (can't yet stand) and she fed.
BUT WAIT! There's MORE! Six just kidded. One very large one. In fact, it may be larger than any of the ones so far. That makes six today.
As a follow-up, we lost all three of Delores' trips - they were just born too early and not developed enough to stand on their own. It's always sad to lose one goat, but three is a lot more difficult to bear, particularly when you've tried to keep them alive for so long.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Kidding!
Really. It's kidding season, but we have about ten pregnant goats. Today, two kidded. Last night, one died while kidding. One also (about two weeks ago) aborted its kids (213).
But tonight, we have five nannies in stalls - two stalls for those who kidded today (at around 10 and then again about 1pm, when we were out trying to return the cage that we had for the dog. Oops.. that was something else, too. Our new dog, Brisket, is entirely too wild to capture by hand.)
Wait. The goats. And why we have five stalls occupied at the moment. Two goats kidded (32 and 17). Thirty-two is a brand new mom and didn't quite GET how to clean its kid up and allow it to feed. Seventeen had her kids first, in the woods, and without notice. Hell, she wasn't even in the running for 'first to kid'. But she did, nonetheless. Had twins. The second one we thought she was going to just leave in the woods, so we had to show it the teat and allow it to feed -- after we dragged 17 and her kids into a birthing stall so they'd be safe from predators. Our dog, Brisket, probably ate the first afterbirth, but we don't know. He was licking his lips, though, when we went out to get the feed dish, scoop and water bowl that we'd left for 17.
So 32 kidded while we were out getting hay, but had no idea how to actually clean her kid off. And frankly, I think she was a little put off at first that it actually wanted to feed from her udder. I think it's all cool, now, so we don't have any bottle babies... yet.
So 12, one of our finest and smartest goats, is putting out major signs and we put her away today.. she may have her kids tomorrow or even late in the evening tonight.
Blank was just acting strange and doing what we thought was a first 'push', so we also put her into a birthing stall of her own. I think she appreciates the solitude.
And then there's 215 - Mike saw white goop coming out of her hiney and we put her into a birthing stall, as well.
This comes at the end of a day of canning 10 cans of chicken stock, putting wire on a stall just in case we had some that were birthing (oh, gee... just in time). And doing a million other things in the day, as usual.
But then there's Brisket. Yesterday, we set the trap that Mike got from the Bastrop Animal Control people a few days ago. We did capture poor Brisket and Mike was late this morning, but dropped the dog off at the vet -- I was following behind and had the day off... We thought Brisket would have to be anesthetized so that the vet could work on him, but that wasn't the case. We got him back around noon today - yes, you guessed it... just in time for kidding season to really get going. Brisket seems slightly less timid of us -- probably because now he knows that there are a lot crueler people out there that want to stick him with needles (vaccinations) and such. The collar came off and he's happily eating. Poor pooch. We just torture him so...
Tired. That's it for now.
But tonight, we have five nannies in stalls - two stalls for those who kidded today (at around 10 and then again about 1pm, when we were out trying to return the cage that we had for the dog. Oops.. that was something else, too. Our new dog, Brisket, is entirely too wild to capture by hand.)
Wait. The goats. And why we have five stalls occupied at the moment. Two goats kidded (32 and 17). Thirty-two is a brand new mom and didn't quite GET how to clean its kid up and allow it to feed. Seventeen had her kids first, in the woods, and without notice. Hell, she wasn't even in the running for 'first to kid'. But she did, nonetheless. Had twins. The second one we thought she was going to just leave in the woods, so we had to show it the teat and allow it to feed -- after we dragged 17 and her kids into a birthing stall so they'd be safe from predators. Our dog, Brisket, probably ate the first afterbirth, but we don't know. He was licking his lips, though, when we went out to get the feed dish, scoop and water bowl that we'd left for 17.
So 32 kidded while we were out getting hay, but had no idea how to actually clean her kid off. And frankly, I think she was a little put off at first that it actually wanted to feed from her udder. I think it's all cool, now, so we don't have any bottle babies... yet.
So 12, one of our finest and smartest goats, is putting out major signs and we put her away today.. she may have her kids tomorrow or even late in the evening tonight.
Blank was just acting strange and doing what we thought was a first 'push', so we also put her into a birthing stall of her own. I think she appreciates the solitude.
And then there's 215 - Mike saw white goop coming out of her hiney and we put her into a birthing stall, as well.
This comes at the end of a day of canning 10 cans of chicken stock, putting wire on a stall just in case we had some that were birthing (oh, gee... just in time). And doing a million other things in the day, as usual.
But then there's Brisket. Yesterday, we set the trap that Mike got from the Bastrop Animal Control people a few days ago. We did capture poor Brisket and Mike was late this morning, but dropped the dog off at the vet -- I was following behind and had the day off... We thought Brisket would have to be anesthetized so that the vet could work on him, but that wasn't the case. We got him back around noon today - yes, you guessed it... just in time for kidding season to really get going. Brisket seems slightly less timid of us -- probably because now he knows that there are a lot crueler people out there that want to stick him with needles (vaccinations) and such. The collar came off and he's happily eating. Poor pooch. We just torture him so...
Tired. That's it for now.
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