Eight months

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.

I'm building a set of nesting boxes for the chickens. Right now they lay their eggs in several different places. Mostly in the barn in the corners of stalls where they can scratch some hay into a crude nest. They always pick the closed stalls for egg laying. We leave a few stalls closed to the animals all the time to keep some clean. That way if we have a sick animal we don't have to clean one up on a moments notice with a patient waiting patiently. So the hens sit on their little nests and lay their eggs and sometimes fall asleep while laying. Some chickens lay their eggs in the hay feeder in the goat barn. Yesterday as I was checking the fluffiness the hay (goats like fluffy hay) for them I found a broken egg in the midst of the hay. That's not good. Goats are pretty much Vegans and don't even care for eggs fish or dairy products. So eggs are right out as far as they are concerned. The egg reminded me that among the many things I need to do is to make a lid for the hay feeder to keep the chickens out and to keep the goats out. Three times in the last week I've gone to either fluff or refill the hay and I have to check first that there is no goat actually IN the feeder. If I threw an 80lb bale of hay onto a 15lb goat it won't be the hay that suffers. So a lid has become necessary. It will probably be simple, a wood and hardware cloth affair. Easily opened and closed yet suitable for preventing the ingress of the animals while still allowing them to eat all the dried grass they want.
I see that another project has intruded upon the nesting box project. Well isn't that the way it goes. The purpose of the nesting boxes is to encourage the birds to lay their eggs someplace that's easy to get to, for them and for us. Someplace where they won't be disturbed by the myriad of creatures that inhabit the barn. Yet somewhere that is easy for Kristi or me to easily open while balancing a bucketandascoopofchickenscratchandthechickwatererandtheeggcarton which is frequently what we're doing while gathering eggs. So I'm 2/3 of the way through building the nesting boxes. It will be 8 feet long, an 8 holer, with 12x12 luxury boxes for the birds. When I'm done with the structure Kristi will paint the interior in a dark color for privacy. The exterior will be painted for durability. With luck we can keep the goats off it.
All the momma goats are doing fine. All the babies are swell. 29 was released from the designated birthing stall Sunday along with her two babies. We refer to our goats by their ear tag number. That's where the 29 comes from. So we have 3 more expecting females left. One looks big enough for triplets and the other two may have one or two. We're keeping our eyes crossed hoping for trips.

More Catching Up

Brrr... it's been cold.

Last night, Mike smelled smoke -- as in a grassfire type of smoke and drove around at 2:30 in the morning looking for the fire. Luckily, there was no fire.

In his post, he didn't actually make a full accounting of the animals we now have.

23 goats (we had two last night!) -- nine of which, are newborns. 3 of which are male.
47 chickens (last count)
5 guineas (they're brains actually allow them to survive right now. Amazing.)
3 cats (we're keeping PureCat until he becomes socialized a bit more, I think)
1 peacock (wounded)
1 peahen (hopefully pregnant by aforementioned peacock)
1 dog

Catching up

Last post, 15 goats. This post 21 goats. It has been busy. I could attach some very goopy pictures, but that might be rude. Therefore I will post a cute picture of some of the kids. We had a tragedy. When we bought this place Kristi, thinking quickly (as usual) traded a minor potential tax issue at the closing for 3 goats from the previous owners. One young buck (that is a male goat that is still....intact. Fully equipped. Whole. Unaltered. We also got 2 experienced nanny's. A nanny is a female goat that has given birth before. A doe is a female that hasn't given birth and it therefore an unknown quantity as far as birthing problems. Last January we were lucky enough to get twins (both does) and triplets by the other (all boys). Nanny two rejected one and you can read about that in the archives. We called the little buck Spot. In December Nanny two was pregnant again. We were picking the place up and battening down the hatches for a predicted ice storm coming that night. I noticed Nanny two was in the goat barn in the afternoon. That was slightly unusual. She was also bleating, which was unusual. She is usually quiet. We went to the grocery store to buy supplies enough to last a couple of days. When we returned I went to check on Nanny two. I found her in the goat barn. She was having her babies. She had 3. Two were dead, still encased in their placentas. One was alive and kicking. I ripped open the placentas in case there was a chance they were alive but it was too late. If they were born alive, they may have suffocated. It's mama's job to open the placenta, and clean up the babies. Usually they do, but occasionally they don't. Had I been there watching the birth, I could have done something about it, but I didn't put the hints together. While I was cleaning up afterwards I noticed what I thought was the afterbirth coming from Nanny two. It turned out to be a 4th kid, also born dead. This one had been pushed on for a long time, and probably nothing I could have done would have helped. Mama was okay if tired. I got her a nice smorgasboard of grains, hay, alfalfa blocks and goat feed. She ate and drank some warm water laced with molasses. All was well with her. Her baby didn't look so great. One rear leg was twisted about 90 degrees. The other rear leg was bending the wrong way. I think it was due to too many babies in there and overcrowding. I hoped that it would straighten out. After a few days it did and his legs are perfectly healthy. That was Wednesday afternoon.
Thursday we had a nice ice storm. You could leave the house, but it was a struggle to make it 80 feet to the barn. The back deck was iced over. The driveway was iced over. The goats were fed in the barn that day. The goats were happy. I isolated Nanny 2 in the goat barn with her baby so they could bond and she could take care of it without 14 ravenous goats stomping, butting and smashing their way through feeding time.
Saturday morning I went out and fed everybody. When I got to the goat barn Nanny two was dead. She was laying in the same position as the evening before, wrapped around her baby keeping him protected from the cold. THAT was a bad day. Later in the day the other Nanny goat gave birth to twin does. That was great, but the day was one of black gloom.
Saturday morning I buried Nanny 2 in the pet cemetery. She took a big hole. Her baby, now orphaned became my charge and had to be bottle fed. Kristi is calling it Spot, like the first bottle baby. It took a couple of hours to train the kid to drink from the bottle. Kristi and hunger finally convinced it. Oh, and of course we had to drive over to Wal-Mart for a couple of baby bottles. Now, a few weeks later it is taking a quart of baby goat formula twice a day. The baby is perfectly healthy and is much bigger than any of the other new kids.

We are up to about 47 chickens. Our Barred Rock rooster was taken by a raccoon and that was the end of the fertilized eggs for a while. Still, 47 is probably enough. Roughly half are roosters so this spring we'll cull the roosters (make chicken stock) and get another one. We don't want to use one of the roo's we're raising since they are all brothers and sisters. We'll bring in some new genes.

Around the same time as the goats were starting to kid we had a Barred Rock hen go broody. This is our first motherly chicken and is unusual in modern poultry. Broodiness has been bred out of chickens. An egg takes 21 days to hatch on the average. After about 25 days I candled the egg when the hen was out eating. The egg was not fertile and had no chick growing in it. I ran to the house and grabbed an egg from the incubator. I checked it was a good one with a flashlight and ran back to the barn. I exchanged the eggs. Momma hen was fooled and sat right back down on the egg. A few days later the egg hatched and we now have a very proud momma hen strutting around showing off her little baby. This is a behavior we'd like to encourage amongst the chickens.

There's more more more to say and I'll post when I have some more thyme.

Inventory

15 Goats, 1 Buck, 14 Does and Nannys
1 Dog
2 Cats
1 Peahen
1 Peacock
33 chickens (+ one that is fixin to hatch today)
2 Roosters.
55 Animals

All of them need to be fed and watered daily. Dewormed and D.E.'d, petted and fussed over, shooed away and called over. Unstuck from fences, have their bedding cleaned, inspected for pink eye, checked over for parasites, searched for injuries and rarely buried. It's been an enjoyable year with the animals and we're looking forward to what 2006 brings.

The chickens inspect the lathe's new home 

Heavy Metal

Last November Kristi and I drove to California for Thanksgiving Vacation. Vacation should always be capitalized by the way. We had a wonderful trip on the way out. In New Mexico for miles and miles we saw what looked like citrus vines growing on the ground. That didn't make any sense so when we arrived at a little town to buy gas Kristi asked about them. The are a kind of gourd the shopkeeper explained. A local lady gathers them up for crafts sometimes. Well one of Kristi's interests are gourds so we kept an eye peeled for the next hundred miles. Nothing. Not a single gourd or vine. We had exceeded the range of the plants. I volunteered several times to go back and get some but she would have none of it. Too bad.
We had a nice time visiting friends and relatives in California. As part of the deal we picked up a lathe and a milling machine. This was a favor for a friend, they wanted rid of them, it was a nuisance to them and a windfall for me. I had owned a tiny machine shop decades ago so I know my way around the metal working tools. Anyway the trip back was as bad as the trip out was good. I had surgery for a deviated septum (nose) a couple of weeks before and I was still healing. In a small town called Deming New Mexico I was just beginning to pump gas and blood began flooding out of my nose. Not just a little either. We stopped right there and got a motel room. The bleeding didn't stop and I went to emergency - luckily Deming had a hospital. They gave me an IV and stuck a couple of tampons in my nostrils. That was a quick $1100.00. I was dizzy and nauseous so Kristi got to drive most of the way back, towing an 18 foot trailer heavily loaded. One of the few times I drove I very nearly ran us out of gas. We made it to the worlds busiest gas station somewhere in West Texas. Remember it was Thanksgiving week. What an awful trip.
The memory of the trip is now fleeting but the machines are still on the trailer parked out in the yard. I refused to leave them there for a full year. That's just TOO LONG. So this weekend I resolved to move them into the garage. A friend of Kristi's gave us some bookshelves. These were perfect for holding tools and parts and tooling for the machines in the garage so that's where they went. Kristi generously helped organize everything and suddenly we had enough room to move the machines in. Aha! I said. I have vacation coming up. I can move them then! But my vacation is already spent 5 times over with the chores I need to get done. Repair the greenhouse from last years hail storm, Build benches and shelves in there to hold all the plants. Put in a gravel floor and water system both collected rainwater and city water, Reset the supports for the deck so they are not resting on the septic tank lid, build a storage rack for lumber and long items behind the shed, build a proper compost area. That's a partial list. There's more. A lot more. Get the electric fence working around the whole property, Replace some rotting fenceposts in the back yard, clean out the birdhouses, Sand and refinish the deck. There's still more. You get the idea. So we moved them today. I arranged to rent a forklift from my favorite rental company - San Marcos Rent All. It's my favorite forklift as I rent it for work from time to time. I picked it up on its trailer in San Marcos at 8am Saturday morning and towed it home. We moved the lathe first. I thought this would be the easier machine of the two and besides it had to go in first. There were problems that we got to solve and contraptions we got to make but eventully we got the machine set up in its new home. I will attach a picture as evidence.
The mill that I thought would be so difficult was merely tedious. We followed the fine example of the ancient Egyptions, setting the machine down on pipes and I pushed it along while Kristi would take up the pipes as the machine rolled off of them and replace the pipe at the front. This worked well and the machine is now in its new home.
Since this hasn't been much of a farm related post I will share a couple of minor farm items. Early in the day Kristi went chasing after the goats that had once again gotten into the front yard. There was much shouting and waving of arms. The goats left and the trees were saved. But...some have branches broken. All the leaves that were left have been stripped. That's not so good.
I was in the middle of cleanup, putting some lumber away when I heard rain hitting the tin roof above me. I went to get Kristi's golf cart to put it in the garage and Barbecue sat in the passenger side. Well my trip was only going to be a few feet and she had been good all day (mostly) so I gave her a ride around. We went around the fruit trees in the front yard and then into the garden area to survey the damage the frost had done. I rounded a corner past the tomato plants and there was an armadillo! We see the holes they leave as they look for grubs but only rarely do we see the animal. I got Barbecue to look at it and she took right off and chased it out of the yard. Strange creatures they are.

Don't count your chickens after they hatch either

In the last 24 hours we've had 5 chicks hatch. Or flock continues to grow. One of the little ones died between 1:28 and 5:00 this morning. I don't know why. At the earlier time it seemed to be in good conditon. There's one more egg that has pipped- made it's first crack in the shell-so it may hatch before the day is out. We have stopped collecting eggs for the incubator. At the moment we have 31 birds and there are still about 15 eggs left in the incubator. We want to end up with 40 birds and since many eggs in the incubator won't hatch for various reasons. 21 of the chickens have been born in the last month so it will be at least 4 more months before we start getting eggs from them. It's a lot of fun having the chickens around. They also do a fine job of reducing the insect population.

Format change

I don't know if that's the right term but here goes.
I'm not being very regular at updating this blog.
What a surprise.


So.....


I will be posting much more frequently but with even less substance. Even that may be considered substance abuse by some since the quality of the content is unlikely to improve - unless Kristi chooses to post more often.
Any how anything that happens around here of note will be passed on. Especially if something passes on.

Last night Barbecue was barking her ferocious bark in an unusual spot. The far southeast corner of the property. The neighbors back there have dogs and now a horse. We can tell the difference from the sound. Anyway the dog was barking long and loud in the middle of the night. This morning she was listless and didn't run barking out ahead of us as she usually does. Kristi thinks this is for our protection and I choose to believe that too as the alternative is to be annoyed with her. (Barbecue, not Kristi) When I got home this afternoon I checked her and she seems completely fine. So no problem. I warmed up some frozen corn to spoil the various fowl with and crumbled up some saltfree saltines (does that make ANY sense?) for a treat. As usual I called the birds and went to the barnyard tossing corn in every direction. Ever bird we had came squawking. I went into the barn to spoil the small chicks and what do I see? One of the five large chicks (5 weeks old) was in the medium (3 weeks) coop! How did it get in there? No matter. I got it out. Then it hopped up on the rim of the bowl of corn and crackers and greedily pecked away. I picked up the bowl and chick and put it where the other large chicks could get to it.
I commited to rent a forklift for Saturday the 12th at 8:00 am. It's time to move the machine tools that have sat on the trailer in the yard for nearly a year. Last weekend we got the garage cleaned out and we now have room. I have made a graphpaper model of the garage layout with scale sized pieces to represent all the various tools and tables. Now I can have endless fun rearranging the bits until Saturday when the actual moving must be done.

Funeral of a goat

We lost our first goat Friday. It was a mostly Spanish with a little boer mixed in. It slowly began falling behind the rest of the herd when they'd move from field to field, not much but it was always last. After a couple of weeks of being the last goat it quite going with her herd at all. Well this is unherd of. (that was humor) It would stay around the barn and bleat at me when it could see me. It was still eating and drinking, but the other goats would butt it when it would join the them. Our inexperience caught up with us when Kristi noticed that the goats eyelids were white. That's bad and it's a sign of worms. At this point the goat had stopped eating. We ran to the store and got some worming concentrate. I gave her a double dose but it was too late to help. I saw her at about 3:30 when I gave the chickens their afternoon scratch. She was down on the ground with her tongue sticking out and bleating. I tried to help her get some water but she wouldn't take any. I went out again at 7 to close the guinea coop and she was gone. Saturday morning we had a little funeral procession involving a little red wagon, a couple a shovels a golf cart, some gloves and a lot of digging. A goat requires a pretty big hole. It was a sad day around the farm.

Pink eye and dead rabbits

Seasonal businesses and active posting don't seem to go together well. Yesterday I finally posted an entry that was begun in July. That is how things go sometimes. Barbecue is about 10 months old now. Yesterday she caught and killed her first rabbit. Our little girl is growing up. I buried the remains halfway through making dinner.
We had a small epidemic of pink eye go through the herd last month. Our oldest nanny goat got it first. Kristi and I were in the garden field picking tomatos as we did every day from May until August. All the goats went back to the barn leaving Mama goat behind. This NEVER happens. Mama-goat leads the way for all the others. She was bleating and looking around like she was lost. Realizing something was amiss, I walked over to that field. When I got up close, I could see that Mama-goats eyes were swollen and nearly shut! There was also a watery discharge that had wet her face. She could barely see, and I suspect she could only see light and dark or a blur. She had trouble distinguishing the fence the gate etc. I let her smell me for a while to help settle her down and led her out from the field into the front yard. She never gets into the front yard, but I thought this would be easier as it is a straight walk from the field to the barnyard. She ran off and I followed trying to guide her gently to the barnyard gate. I hate to add stress to her when she's nearly blind. I finally got her in there. Then the fun began. I went and bought some eyedrops for pinkeye. Then I went to one of my favorite stores, Tractor Supply Company and bought some hypodermic syringes and some antibiotics. She had to have 3 injections over 6 days. It did clear up the pinkeye though. 4 more goats got it over the next few weeks and they all had to be isolated from the herd and injected. Not many of them enjoyed it. In fact, none of them enjoyed it. They are still suspicious of me months later.

Guineas are wonderful birds. They are watchdogs (watchbirds?) that squalk so loudly you have to hold your hands over your ears. They squalk at strangers, hawks, sounds, feathers, dirt, the sky and minor air movements. Get the picture? We started with 7 guineas. We lost one early on when I failed to realize the quickness of their development. They could fly before I was ready for them to fly. My little, portable chicken coop was pressed into service when we got the guineas. They took to it well as they had no choice. The coop was designed for chickens which don't generally fly very well. I had left the top 4 inches below the roof open for ventalation. One day I went out to feed them and they were all sitting on the top roost! So they were able to fly over 2 feet to the 2x2 roosts. Gah! I had to do something quick. I went and cut some impromptu screens out of hardware cloth. This was screwed over the openings. They still had plenty of ventilation but could no longer escape. A quick count however showed one missing. We looked around but it was gone, probably eaten by a possum, raccoon or cat.
Last weekend I put the guineas away just at dark. They are the last stragglers amoung the poultry to go to bed. A count showed 5 birds, six if you count the rooster but that's another story which I will come to presently. Since it was dark it was hard to see. I ran and got Miss Lyn and together we tried to find our missing bird. No luck. We trusted we would find her/him in the light of the next day, and sure enough we did. Miss Lyn was searching all those places that the chickens lay their eggs every day. One of the newer places is behind a small door in the goat barn. This door is about 4 feet wide but only 2 feet high. The door is always kept open, folded back against the inside wall of the building. The door is held in place by a cinderblock. Frequently the goats move the block around and the door comes away from the wall enough for a chicken to get behind it for the privacy she wants for egg laying. When Miss Lyn opened the door she found our missing guinea. It had gone in and could not get out and had died. As it was raining heavily I opted to bury the poor bird in the afternoon.
Several weeks ago our main rooster "Florshiem" was found dead on the floor of the barn. There were no marks on him and no reason could be found for his death. He was buried on the perimeter of the barnyard where he lived his whole life. This loss left us without a main rooster. We still have an emergency backup rooster, but as it is a ridiculous bird we won't acknowledge it. We needed a rooster. A mate for our flock of 9 Barred Rock hens. The hens lay eggs just fine without a Roo, but if we want to create new Barred Rock chickens we need a rooster for fertilization. We found a place that sells more or less full grown roos and bought one for $7.00 An exorbinant price for such a bird. However the benefits may outweigh the drawbacks if we get more chicks.
We let the roo go in the barnyard. Silly us, we should have locked it in the chicken (guinea) coop for 2 weeks so it would know where home was. I only read about that after the rooster disappeared. Yep, after the first night it was gone. After 3 days we were going to go get another one. I was in the barn with the box that we had picked the last one up in, when in the corner of the barn scratching around was our rooster!! It hadn't been eaten! The barred rock hens would pick on it mercilessly. Whenever the roo was anywhere nearby the hens would chase it off. Later that afternoon I saw the rooster go into the guinea coop, look around an come out again. That evening as I was shepherding the guineas into the coop I saw the rooster in there. So the roo was going to live with the guineas. Swell. Forget about fertilized Barred Rock chickens then. Turns out that the roo wasn't developed quite as much as we thought. He still had a few weeks to go before he started crowing. Now he hangs out with the chickens during the day and the guineas at night. We are happy with a full incubator, he is happy and the barred rock hens are happy that they have a guardian.

You say Tomato, I say Potato.

It's the 26th of June and hotter than three kinds of hell, but that doesn't stop us from working our collective asses off. I'm not talking donkeys here, either.

The 200+ tomato plants are ripening, but not all at once. We get about 10 pounds a day and yesterday we made tomato sauce with the first ten lbs. Today, we have another ten pounds and will be making salsa, but not for canning. I also canned several pints of crunchy jalapenos, the same jalapenos that make you get on your knees and scream to the heavens. You know, good ones.

The rat in the tack room is maybe five inches long plus the tail. Mike's seen it three times now, always in the morning, but he can also hear it most of the time. We left the door ajar for Eatz, our rat-eating cat, but today the little goats got their heads inside and thus their bodies and tore open a chicken feed bag and messed up some of the goat chow bags.

Our attempt at raising corn this first go around was a bust. Without big machines that go between the rows and pick the corn, we figured out that we need at least two feet between the rows to get into it with a mower. Mike thinks I'm crazy because I bought a hand mower, one that doesn't run on gas. It will come in handy. He just can't see it right now.

Alas, the corn looks like miniature corn, and really that's not bad, it just isn't the type of corn we wanted. It's silver queen, but matured too fast because of two factors -- weeds and lack of nitrogen in the soil. This is version One Point Oh!

The watermelons are coming along nicely, too, but slowly, as always. The squash -- two kinds -- zucchini (sp?) as well as round squash, are growing like crazy. The plants are the biggest I've ever seen. Huge.

The gourds are doing well, but I could not remember what type of gourd I planted in one pot and when I transferred them, I thought they were dipper gourds, but that's not the case. They're LOOFAHS! So we have round ball gourds, dippers and loofahs this year. Somewhere. Next year, the markers will be bigger so I can find them.

Today, I harvested the dill seeds on the drying heads that will die off in the sun if they're not captured. I put them in a garbage bag with holes in it, then tied it up in the kitchen.

The volunteer gourds in the barnyard that are doing well are birdhouse gourds. We also have snake gourds growing.

Mike finished the covering behind the shed where he will store his wood, so that's good. Today, he is sorting the wood and creating a way to store it properly. He's found a bunch of cockroaches which are easily taken care of organically with boric acid and diatomaceous earth. It's too bad the chickens don't follow him around out there, because they love to eat the cockroaches. More protein, better eggs.

We are getting between six and seven eggs a day right now, but some of the shells are not hard enough and I suspect that those eggs are from the new layers. We've always had that problem with the ends of the eggs being super soft and usually broken. Mike says that's not the case, that the chickens scratch around and cause the egg to break. Nonetheless, those eggs get thrown into the barnyard and our little cannibals love them.

The guineas are a handful, but they hang out in a pack, are quite noisy and delightful at the same time. They explore a little more area every day, and these last few days, that area has been the barn itself.

Weed control for the tomatoes, the potatoes, the beans, the corn, etc... is a real issue we have to deal with next time. The black plastic could have worked, but the dirt I put on top seems to have allowed the grass and weeds to grow. Version One Point Oh!

The fruit trees we ignored for a week and the leaves fell of off some of them because of the heat and the fact that we've been too busy to keep watering them consistently.

Bewicks Wrens, which are diminishing in numbers in the US, seem to be nesting in the small, wire shelf just outside the back door. The eggs, we think, have hatched because the wrens come with grasshoppers and other bugs, so that can only mean they're feeding chicks. The wrens are wary of us, but more wary of our long-hair cat (Thud), and chirp like the dickens when she's around. There are four little eggs and both the male and the female share nesting duties.

We foiled the squirrels that had torn a hole in the trashcan that we were using to store bird feed on the back porch. We replaced it with a metal one, but recently, we've discovered that the little buggers have pissed all over the lid. Maybe they're just pissed off because they can't get to the seed. With all the pecans, the acorns and other food around, you'd think they wouldn't be so spoiled.

Barbecue, who has been given the OKAY to chase the squirrels has a little dance that she does when chasing them. She runs after them with a bounce on her front paws, barking excitedly and turning around and around. We encourage her to do this and she loves it. It still doesn't keep the squirrels out of the back yard, though.

Barbecue is enervated by the heat. Poor dog, she sits under bushes where it's exposed and cool dirt. I don't think she's got enough energy to actually dig a nice cool spot out for herself under our trees at this time. That's not a bad thing.

We tried to set up a scarecrow waterer that is motion-activated, but she'll have none of that. She is afraid of the water because someone, AHEM, used to squirt her if she started barking at the hose. Now she stays away from the water when it's in, AHEM, someone's hands.

Welp, it's time to go switch the waters over and eat lunch.

Humidity Blues

Now that the heat's here, so is, yes, the humidity. It blankets every act you commit outside and every single step you take. Mike can just THINK about going outside and his shirt is soaked.

The guineas flew the coop yesterday. Mike cooked dinner and I went outside to check to see if the guineas had come out -- we've left the cage open for the third day and they finally decided it was cooler outside than inside the cage. But they weren't just walking around, they were bathing in the dirt. It reminded me of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and Teri Garr's "Roll, roll, roll in the hay.." scene. Only four guineas made the jump, with two squawkers inside the coop who didn't quite understand the concept of an open door.

We saw Star Wars III for the second time yesterday and came home around 6:30 when Mike decided to check the trap for predators. He thought something was amiss because Barbecue was barking like crazy and acting a little weird. She knew there was something trapped, but didn't quite find the English words to tell us, "Hey, Dudes, something's in the trap." Stupid dog.

So off Mike went and Barbecue apparently got to the trap before he did... and then Mike saw that another raccoon had visited us over the last two days, taking the chicken-parts bait that we left in the trap.

We did the humane thing again, using the truck's exhaust and a garbage bag to do the deed...

It was kind of a crazy night, but very delightful and funny in other ways.

The tomatoes are getting out of hand, but they're not quite ripe just yet. I pickled a batch of jalapenos (two pint-sized mason jars) and put some in a bowl for us to try them out. They are spicy hot, but only after the first bite. But then you get down-on-your-knees-say-jalapeno-luya-scream-like-you-mean-it hot. It's the sandy soil what does it, methinks.

Off to never-never land...

Kristi

It's still Summer... or it's Summer-still

It is amazing to me how comforting this farm is, how wonderful to go home and to not have to worry about walking around the house in skivvies or staying inside because you don't want to talk to the neighbors. It all works for us. We like the peace and quiet because truly, neither of us have quiet jobs. Mike's job might be on the top of a hill that overlooks a cow pasture, but it's still noisy with the people around the warehouse, his employees and the constant ringing of the phones. My job is just crazy.

It is SO nice to come home to the farm. It's just RIGHT here.

Our harvests so far have been some test garlic and onions, a few plums, peaches, herbs, eggs, 40 'harvested' chickens, dill up to my... neck (almost). The gourds have gone crazy and will be taking over the 50 foot by 150 foot plot of land where they're planted.

The tomatoes are going crazy, too, and the teardrop tomatoes look more like filled in cartoon balloons with large... points on the ends.

The corn has just begun to put out its pollen packages and I hope we see some silk action in the next few weeks.

One of the boar billy goats have, for the last two days, been in the forested area where there is no gate. It has cried when we got home and gotten stuck behind the fence where it goes to find better foliage, I guess. We've had to let it out twice at the evening feeding time. The poor thing bleats like there's no tomorrow and is so panicky with us, that it just doesn't know how to handle getting back into the barnyard.

Our barred rock chickens are almost ready to lay, and we think one of them might be doing so. We can't ever tell because we pick up the eggs at odd times. Since chickens lay about every 23 hours (with regular feedings), we don't know and can't FIND the eggs when they do lay them. They've laid in the nesting boxes I made for them only twice. They are foragers, too, supplemented with chicken scratch from time to time and laying mash when they want it in a huge feeder.

The littlest goat is finally off formula, but still a pain, as it is the loudest of the goats and the one that has to be right next to us around feeding time. Bleating. Did I mention the annoying bleating?

It's hot, now, and there is still much work to do. The greenhouse is useless right now, but still has a few plants in it. Tomatoes (cherry) as well as castor bean trees, one caper plant and a few odds and ends. I need to clean it out and reorg it for the fall. It's not quite right, yet.

We have sparrows nesting right outside our back door, right at eye level and where we put stuff like gloves. There are three eggs in the nest along with Mike's matchstick lighter for his barbecue.

Speaking of Barbecue, she's got a million sticker burs in her coat and we try to keep her free of them by brushing once or twice a week, but it just doesn't seem to matter. Rolling around in the dirt and the grass is her specialty, after all.

It's been a long few weeks.

Happy farming!

Miss Lyn (Kristi)

Heat? What heat?

Sweat was stinging my eyes as I walked away from the grave. Gravedigging. Just another chore that has to be taken care of on the farm. Judge, jury and executioners too are jobs needing to be done. The raccoon had been trapped sometime in the night out in the far back woods along the creek behind the house. We find holes dug under the fence every time we venture out there. Even after we plug up the holes with whatever is at hand, usually fallen branches and limbs from the hundreds of trees all around us, the nocturnal marauders pull them out or push them aside and canvass our property. Raccoons are fierce, smart and bold predators. We have lost chickens in broad daylight when we are home on the weekends. We have lost a rooster (not a big loss) and one of our 10 Barred Rock hens. This is a loss screaming for vengence. The barred rocks aren't even mature yet. We've had them for nearly 5 months we expect them to start laying any day now. Adding to the raccoons crimes, I was bitten by a tick after walking out to check the trap. We baited the trap with part of a chicken back. These and other parts are kept in the freezer for the next time we make stock. Even a small piece is enough to attrack the greedy killers. Saturday we went to check the trap and found the hissing snarling beast. Now we have a problem we have to get rid of it. After discussing options we come up with 3 methods. One is to release it. We could drive out to an area far from any houses and near a creek so the raccoon would have shot at survival, and release it. This is unfortunately illegal and it might create a pest problem for someone else. So that one was dismissed. Option 2 was to shoot it. We have a rifle now, but haven't used it and I have only fired BB guns and the little .22 rifles at carnivals. So I really need some practise before I go after the varmint with guns blazing. So I chose to use carbon monoxide. We put the trap into a large trash can on its side and then taped a plastic trash bag to the opening, sealing it. Next I cut a small hole in the closed end of the bag. The hole was taped to some cardboard that was wrapped around some aluminum foil that covered the end of the exhaust pipe of my truck. The truck was started, in 20 minutes the deed was done. The creature was probably dead in 10 minutes but we wanted to be SURE. It was late in the day Saturday so we waited until Sunday to bury it.

Same song, different day

This past weekend, my friend Mary visited us, wanting to have 'farm therapy' which is to say a day of getting away from all the world you inhabit. We planted jalapenos and tabasco peppers, about 20 plants. This is added to the nearly 200 plants, now -- most of which are tomatoes.

Our Guineas are getting bigger and made their presence known when they could fly up to the top of the coop and see out. Unfortunately, they could fly out if they wanted to, so Mike worked on putting hardware cloth up so they could see out -- but not fly out.

The composting isn't fast enough for what I'm using these days and so I think I'm going to have to start a new pile and let this one be. Maybe get some compost from the forested areas on the farm for a while.

We captured a raccoon in the live trap, one that seems like it's a baby, which can only mean there must be a larger one, the one that killed two of our chickens. Mary went with us to, well, dispose of it, although she prefers this more humane method than the one we first thought we would do --which is to shoot it. We've lost one of the barred rock hens and one of the roosters -- the pretty aurecana with black feathers that had really nice, dark green highlights in them. The rooster's feathers were in a field opposite of where the remaining body parts of it were. Very odd because the rooster was quite a large one. The raccoon had to have been large enough to haul it almost a tenth of a mile.

We caught a possum a few days ago and set it free by one of the creek entryways at the back of the property. It probably won't come back, seeing as it was pretty well pissed off with us for merely capturing it.

Barbecue now knows another few commands -- 'roll over' and 'shake' although she does the 'shake' part whenever she wants to impress us -- without us asking her to. She is getting bigger and more like a dog every week.

Mike busted his balls this weekend. We also bought a new lawnmower. The one we had was from my father's house (after he passed away) and we've already spent enough money on it -- 45 dollars the first time and we got it running the second time -- well, almost. Mike broke the cord on it when he tried to start it. Not sure if it was that he doesn't know his own strength or that the cord was just worn out. Either way, more money would have been spent on the dang thing just to get it back to running condition. Never buy Murray products...

We purchased a Honda, a higher-end model for 500.00 and some change. It works really well and although it surprised us by being self-propelled (a feature Mike scoffs at), I think we both like it that way.

So Mike mowed parts of fields that he could not get with his big mower and one of those areas was my gourd and potato patch. Now I don't have to worry about stickerburs when watering or maintaining the vines. Yay.

Mike also cleaned out the gutters as well as the hottub this weekend, so I know he is sore, sore, sore. But... that's what we're HERE for, isn't it?

Groan......

I'm sore this morning. No, not mad at anyone or thing, but sore from a long weekend of labor. It was good labor to be sure as most labor is on the little farm. But when the labor is unaccustomed, well it hurts. This weekend saw a lot of things done. Curiously BOTH mornings we slept in until after 8am! We haven't done that for years and years. Once we got up we hit top gear quickly. First thing we went to what has become one of our favorite stores, Tractor Supply Company. There we took back 2 of the 3 bags of "beef cattle supplement" that we had errantly purchased the last time we were there. One drawback of our particular TSC is that they like to move things around frequently. The did this with the feed bags last week. Where the goat feed usually is, they had stacked bags of beef supplement. The bags and labels are identical except for the 8 point type on the label. The consistancy of this product reminded me of fish food flakes. It was 5 o'clock in the morning when I discovered the error, too late (early?) to do anything about it, so I fed it to the goats anyway. Our older female took a mouthful and the poor thing kept trying to swallow the dry powder. Not much of it got eaten. We still have the opened bag which will get traded to someone at Kristi's work that runs cattle. Anyway, we swapped the unopened bags at TSC for the goat chow that our babies love so much. 5 bags of goat feed and a bag of chicken scratch, a hose end sprayer for plant watering with built in on/off switch completed our purchase. We did a quicky shopping at the grocery store too since the store is a block away from the tractor store. We had 39 chickens left out of the birds we slaughtered and we have to eat our way through them. I had the crazy idea to make Carne Guisada but instead of beef, I substituted chicken. It came out pretty good and we're having it for lunch today (Monday).
Back at the farm, I borrowed Kristi's golf cart - boy, that thing comes in handy - and hauled the bags of feed to the tack room. When I opened the door I took in the sad state of the room after months of work. It needed cleaning up. So the hay was restacked, the empty feed bags were flattened and stacked, unused feeders and waterers were put away and everything was moved, swept under and replaced. Now it looks good for a few more weeks.
The next task for me was to rototill a 50ft x 50ft area for Kristi's goards. With our tiny little tiller this took a while. The dirt was very easy to work here. Very sandy and with very few rocks. This would be great for herbs. Once the tilling was done I raked the weed remnants out and smoothed it in preparation for planting. Then I began building the watering system. This was all made from 1" PVC with several valves for different circuits. I am taking the easy way out this time around and I'm running a hose from the nearest spigot to the PVC part of the system. I'll make it permanent later, digging a trench, altering the plumbing underground and putting in a run of pipe to the gourd field. For now it's quick and, believe me, dirty. Kristi got busy planting before I was finished. A few dozen gourd plants of 2 different kinds were planted. Since there was a lot of room left over, potatoes went in. That was it for yesterday. Today, who knows, peas, beans or more herbs may be planted. Barbecue has to go back into the vet today to have her stitches removed.

Ouch... ouch ouch

Weekends are tough, but Monday mornings, when I have to get up early and then go to work are the worst. Groan, creeeeaaaak, groan. Ouch.

This weekend, Mike cleaned out the tack room which needed it, fer sure. He also tilled another patch of land for my gourds (about the same size as the corn) and I planted them on Sunday, as well as two rows of potatoes. It was a gorgeous day and I have the sunburn to prove it.

The purple martins, fascinatingly fascinated with US, seem fairly ensconced in their way of life in their special purple martin condominiums. We have several hummingbirds, now, and we feel that the hawks that have been flying over are nesting on the creek side of the property.

The guineas are fine, totally afraid of us in the brooder box inside the chicken coop. The chickens don't know where to lay their eggs and found a new spot behind the door in the second stall. We have to go on hunts to find them, especially if their privacy has been 'invaded' and they have to find a new place. Of course, this assumes they can remember where they last laid. They are chickens, after all.

We are weaning Spot, the kid, and are down to feeding it 2 cups of special brew per day, now. It is already eating goat chow and after this batch of milk (2 gallons), we're done with all that nonsense! He will be the first to be sold. Sell your kids.. doesn't that sound like a dream?

I bought more seeds (fennel to keep the bugs off the gourds, and a few other things) and will be having 9 cabernet vines mailed to me soon. That will bring our grape crop up to 16, but the other vines are not wine grapes. One is a concord grape plant that seems to be doing great and the others are Thompson seedless. I mulched a lot of things this weekend, raking leaves from the backyard and using some of that for mulch of the fruit trees and the rest of the leaves I mixed into the compost.

I also cleaned out the non-producing pots in the greenhouse, moved some stuff around and made way for the new batch of stuff I just planted -- beans, cilantro. I still have a bunch of peppers that need to go in the ground.

The watermelon vines have taken off and are doing quite well now that I've gotten rid of the fire ants on the mound.

I asked Mike to check the chipper shredder and I'm glad he did. He found that the plastic gas holder on the outside of the machine was leaking at the midway seal. It will have to be replaced, but in the meantime, we can just fill it up half way so that it doesn't leak over the side.

The corn seems to be doing well and I have to keep fertilizing it (organic fertilizer) so that it stays green and healthy. The tomato plants are doing well, although they're experiencing leaf curl. I may have to fertilize them, as well.

Livestock count:
10 barred rock hens
7 assorted chickens (3 roosters, 4 hens)
1 peahen (looking for a peacock if you are out there and in the austin area)
7 guinea chicks (all hens --- at least that's what was promised)
8 goats (3 adults, 4 kids with moms and 1 kid with Mike as mom)
3 cats
1 dog
--
total count: 37.

April 29th -- Kristi writes: Well, Mike's gone and done it, given me a birthday present that few of you would ever even consider. Seven Guineas. No, not the monetary kind, the cute (until grown) kind that will wind up being our main source for grasshopper control (I hope). We picked them up last night and the little buggers won my heart -- squeaking their joy and picking at each others' feet. One of them picked up another guinea's foot as I watched... I think it must have looked like food. The squawking was noted by all except the one whose mouth was full of the other's foot.

Mike set up the brooder box, lid off, inside the chicken coop he built almost two years ago. This chicken coop is self-contained, stands on four posts and the 'ground floor' is about hip height. We painted the coop with the same colors used on our last house. In the barnyard, it IS the only thing that seems a little out of place for how nice it is. Mike put a heat lamp in the box, having first removed the pole on the side of the brooder box because it wouldn't fit into the coop. We found some cedar chips and a used feed bag and lined the box with them. I put the water container in, realizing that it was going to be filled with cedar chips and then I decided that it was necessary to elevate the container to avoid such things. I found a piece of flat concrete and stuck it underneath the waterer. All is well in Guinea world right now. We will probably move the chicken coop that contains said birds into the garden areas where the guineas can have an all-you-can eat bug buffet.

Our biggest cat, Eatz, was awfully curious about the little peeping sounds coming out of this coop and hung around, ears wide open and eyes highly attentive. Luckily, the coop closes safely and latches.

We prepped an area to start growing peppers, as we have over 130 tomato plants in progress in the fields and that's way too many. I need to plant more cilantro and put the peppers that are a few inches high, into the soil. It's time. We finally planted the watermelons in a mound -- although it looks funny and something out of Close Encounters of the Weird Kind.

A new, almost nightly ritual will be to un-hooter (for non-Texans, that means 'fix') our dog, Barbecue, by brushing all the stickerburs out of her coat. She's a magnet for them, with long white hair and a predisposition for rolling in the grass. We all should be so lucky.

The worm problem in the kitchen herb garden seems to be temporarily gone and this is a good thing, as I was about to wage a chemical war on the whole backyard. However, I used BT, a product that is a natural worm killer (doesn't bother earthworms). It's organic and works miracles. Mike sprayed the trees with this stuff two weekends ago and I think all the worms fell onto the herb garden from an oak that bends its branches toward the house.

We still have at least one goldfish left in the pond, but because of the algae and the lilypads, we can't really tell how many are in there. I'm hoping there's more than one and none of them have floated to the top, but we DO have cats and there are lots of birds hereabouts, so it would be surprising to see more than one. We started with eight tiny goldfish and the one we have been seeing seems to be about 3 inches long, so far. Who knows...

Life is good.


April 26th - Mike writes: The chickens are done. Finally. Last weekend was supposed to be dedicated to planting veggies but there were 6 chickens left to slaughter. They can't wait, SO..... We axed them and then set our sites on the roosters. The roosters are a problem. We have 5 roosters to go with 4 laying hens. The Barred Rock hens don't count here because they are not yet mature. For the number of hens we have 1 rooster is more than enough so we have too many. The traditional way to solve this problem is to make stock of the birds. Since we had our canner set up, the stock pots ready and the "processing" area set up we made our choice. Time for the roosters to go. The challange now is to catch them. Kristi got the net and some corn and we went hunting. Two we caught fairly easily. A big black roo with yellow fringe, pretty and useless. We had gotten used to how the Cornish hens reacted to being caught. A little flapping and little else. Well, the roo was different. Kristi put the footcuffs on him and I hung him gently from the 2x2 that is above the buckets that the blood drips onto. At this point the roo reminded us that he can still fly by flapping up to perch on the 2x2. Oops. This act hastened his end and as he hung there dripping we went in for another bird. After all we do these chickens by twos. We caught one of the annoying little Napoleons and he joined the other bird hanging. They got processesed and into the icebox with them. We set our sites on the remaining 3 males and went after them. Kristi caught one in the goat shed and I lost it trying to untangle it from the net. It ran off into the woods to live another day. After this fun we called an end to chasing roosters for the day. More stock was set to simmer