What we’ve learned:

• Keeping geese isn’t a good idea.
• Potbelly pigs are really sweet for 3 days out of the month (during periods).
• Goats, if given an opportunity to do things you don’t want them to, will.
• Chickens will poop on everything, but eat a bunch of grasshoppers and cockroaches and produce really good eggs.
• Neighbors in the country aren’t sweet little old ladies – in fact, loud and obnoxious gun-toters are usually the norm.
• If you don’t do everything yourself, you can’t afford to live out here - these are the things we’ve learned or done for ourselves (not hiring ‘professionals’):
  

1. Plumbing

2. Electrical Wiring

3. Deck remodeling

4. Computer repair

5. Gutter installation and gutter cleaning

6. Household maintenance (flooring repairs, cabinet-repairs

7. Water heater (major appliance) installation, removal, set-up

8. Pond maintenance

9. Fence-building and repair

10. Animal maintenance (generally) besides dogs/cats! (vet stuff)

11. Slaughtering (pig, chickens, goats)

12. Make stuff like chicken coops, small cabinets, etc…

13. Chop down and cut our own wood

14. Tractor work

15. Mowing

16. Pesticide treatment

17. Trapping/killing animals

18. (sometimes) Housework!

19. Rainwater collection systems

20. Dishwasher/refrigerator/ installation

21. Equipment maintenance and repair (sometimes)

22. Stonework

23. Tree trimming
24. Produce our own heat in winter

There's a bunch more, but this is at the end, of course, of a very long day.

Not a great weekend. I had been having trouble with my tractor for a few months. I have posted about that before. Last week I changed the hydraulic oil and removed the filter. Friday afternoon on my way home I rode my BMW R1150RT to Paige TX to buy a new hydraulic oil filter. They didn't have one and sent me to Giddings to get one. Well darn, that's further out so I went. Opened the door to the auto parts store to find an empty building. After looking around I saw there was an opening into another half of the building that was in operation. It looks like the auto parts place is cutting itself in half. Sign of the times I suppose. I asked for a hydraulic oil filter for a 1990 Ford 1720 tractor and the sales guy immediately went to work. I had expected a puzzled look and a "you want a part for a TRACTOR?" kind of question. They had one and I bought it. Had a nice ride home, put the filter on the kitchen counter (where all new things end up) and went off to do other things.

Mimi is improving. For the last 3 days we have been opening a small door that would allow Mimi out of the barn and into a large paddock. We've planted corn, sunflowers and other grains, grasses in there for our Buck, but he has been demoted to the outside for the time being. Mimi gets the good stall. She has finally emerged to the outdoors of her own volition. Of course we MIGHT have lured her with corn and apples and other treats. She brought her kids and they are having a great time learning to rototill dirt, push stones and food around and scamper around fighting with each other. Mimi was a bit more conservative and looked around and retired back into the indoor portion of her stall.

I got around to replacing the tractor's hydraulic oil filter and refilling the oil. Of course the tractor needed more than the 5 gallons of oil I had on hand, so a quick trip to Tractor Supply and another 39.00 dollars solved that problem. Put the oil in, started the tractor - it is still very hard to start - the goats were in the dogleg field so I had a chance to scoop some muck! What fun! Open the gate, shoo the mating peacock and peahen out of the way, start the tractor, realize that the tractor's left front tire is flat, run for the air tank, realize the air tank doesn't have enough air in it to fill a tire, turn on the air compressor to fill the tank to fill the tire and wait. Once there's enough air I run back to the running tractor and fill the tire. Yay! Success! I drive into the barnyard, scoop some muck, back out, put the tractor in neutral, put the brake on, remove seat belt, jump off and close the gate because after all this time the goats have returned. Jump back on the tractor, put my seat belt back on, put the tractor in reverse and....nothing. It doesn't move... just a faint whirring sound. All 3 gears and reverse. Nothing. I poke. I prod. Nothing. I took off part of the dashboard to look at the gearshift linkage. Nothing. Oiled it anyway. Nothing.

I was disgusted.

This afternoon while we were enjoying our late afternoon custom of sitting out watching the goats, I was bothered by a decaying animal matter smell coming from Mimi's stall. This tied in with the hundreds of flies that were swarming there yesterday and today. I was thinking there could be an afterbirth under the hay in one corner. Nope. Worse. I found 2 decaying piglets. Got them out of there immediately. Removed any hay that might have been in contact with them and powdered the area with Diatomaceous earth. Tomorrow the flies will be gone and Mimi will be more comfortable. So she had 6 piglets total. That falls nicely into the 5 to 8 for a potbellied pig.

As we walked back to the house after goat watching, I said I'm going to try the tractor again. Kristi watches as I start it and futilely try to move the tractor. She looks at it and says "What's this" pointing at the range selector lever. I told her what it was, shifted it into a different range at the same time noticing that it seemed to be in neutral. Put the tractor into gear and it worked fine.

S^#T!!

what a day...

So everything's just fine... Mimi had her piglets. Great. But something's wrong. She's not eating much, she's fatter than she needs to be for just having had kids and she seems like she's got very little energy.

Thanks to a friend in Orange Grove (who runs M & T feeds), I found that Mimi may have more kids inside her. Is she pooping? Yes. That means the bulge in her stomach isn't gas or uh, other.

I told Mike and he called the vet to get something called Oxytocin, which should help her expel anything in there that's not supposed to be. After a little more investigation, we decide to take her to the vet - and did so at 4:00ish yesterday afternoon. My friend had inadvertently saved Mimi's life.

We arrived and the woman took her temperature (a bit high) and gave her the oxytocin, then we waited for about 20 minutes. She expelled blood, but no kids.

"What kind of pig was she mated to?" An American Yorkshire, we say... too big for that little potbelly to handle, apparently.

After the Oxytocin didn't work, they had to go in to see what they could find. And find something they did, but the vet's hands were too big. They called in a smaller-handed girl, but she couldn't get what seemed to be a snout of another kid out.

Yes, there were kids.

So now what? They were going to have to sedate her and see if they could get the kids out (they used a rope!) and that worked. There were two kids. Both dead. I had to leave at this point. It had already been a pretty upsetting day for me. But I didn't stay away for long.

I came back and they were finished. The kids that they pulled out were huge - probably just about as big as the living kids are... THREE days later!

We brought Mimi home, clipped her nails, cleaned her ears and her eyes (because it's a lot easier when she's sedated) and put her back in the stall. We kept the kids in a basket and put them next to her stall so she wouldn't try to get them out and then inadvertently sit on them and kill them.

Mike was making dinner and I went out to the barn to check on her and put her kids with her. She was grunting a lot, but as soon as the kids were by her side, she laid down and began feeding them and was quiet.

Because there can be lesions for kids that stay in (although the vet doesn't think she felt any in there), there could be issues in the next day or two with infections that could be fatal, but Mimi was happy to eat this morning (after an initial refusal), and she seems a little better.

Gilt by association

Ha ha! What riotus fun farm humor is. A gilt is a female pig prior to having piglets. If my humor is off a bit today there's a reason for it. Mimi, our pot belly pig has had piglets!! She started building a nest out of fresh hay (ha ha! another farm joke) at 6pm Saturday night, started pushing in earnest at 1am this morning and sometime between 4:49 and 6:39 she had 2 piglets! Why don't I know the exact time? Because it seems I slept through my 6:00 alarm. Both are healthy active little squealers. She has passed an afterbirth which could mean the end or not depending on if she's finished or not. Pigs have 2 sides to their uterus and each side has to be done and have an afterbirth.

I am finishing this up at 8:25pm. She has not had any more piglets, so 2 is what we get. Normal would be 5 to 8. It is her first time. This is fine because really, 3 pigs is more than enough to handle. The daddy was an American Yorkshire pig (hog) and he probably weighed around 250 when he went off to freezer camp where he is enjoying an extended stay (lets all sing kumbayah!!) If we were to total up all the packages in the freezer he would probably weigh a lot less now, because we have eaten some. Does this gross you out?

The Spring Post

That doesn't sound optimistic. Possibly realistic.

We have had 18 kids so far this year. Goat 19 is still pregnant due sometime this month.
Mimi the potbelly pig is pregnant. Due tomorrow. She is the queen of our farm. She gets what she wants over all other animals (including us) She is cranky and cantankerous and fun and sometimes loving. Rarely loving, but it happens. She was mated to an American Yorkshire pig. They had a swell time together. We have moved her from her shed to a barn stall (the indignity!) So she can have her piglets. She was being bothered by flies all around her eyes and Kristi solved that problem tonight with mint oils. We applied mint mixed with water on a paper-towel and rubbed it around her eyes (I tested it on my eyes first to make sure it wouldn't sting. So it was human tested before being applied to a pig....sigh) This had an immediate effect and the troublesome flies are gone! Yay! Mimi's attitude has changed for the better! She even let us pet her and brush her! We also sprayed it on the goats. They are pestered by flies this time of year and we suspect they bite. One brief application of the mint spray and the flies are gone the goats are less stressed and to top it off, they smell better! The goats smell better, not the flies.

Kristi planted loofahs tonight and some birdhouse gourds for me. We're a bit late to the party with planting, but my tractor hasn't been running and we really need it. I had arranged with a fellow to come pick it up and haul it to the tractor repair shop last Saturday. I filled the flat tire, and hooked up a battery charger. Got a tow chain out and brought over the pickup. Once the battery was charged and the chain hooked up. I towed the tractor (with Kristi steering) to the end of the driveway where the tow truck would be able to winch it up. Kristi said to try starting it. Now I had tried starting it dozens of times over the last few months and I knew it to be a futile effort. I tried it anyway just to appease her and of course it started! F&*(!! I hate it when that happens. I called off the tow guy, and immediately began mucking out the barn. This isn't as much fun as it sounds. It hadn't been done for about 9 MONTHS and it REALLY NEEDED it. Goats have little common decency and they will do absolutely disgusting things right there IN the barn in front of anyone. After that I disced the two garden plots, turning under the grasses and weeds and making the dirt nice and fluffy for planting.
That's when I started pushing the limits. I tried to haul the barn muck to the compost area. There is about 9 cubic yards of "muck" that will over a couple of months become 6 cubic yards of beautiful rich compost. All it requires is that I turn the whole mess over a few times with the tractor, add water while I'm turning it and oh yes, our secret ingredient for central Texas - elemental Sulfur. We moved that goats into the driveway so they could eat the grass and weeds on either side. That would keep them occupied for a few hours while I moved the muck. I got about half of it moved when the tractor began acting up. When I would raise the bucket to dump the muck on top of the pile, the disc set on the back would drop to the ground and drag. It would drag enough that I couldn't pull forward to drop my load. Arrg! The tractor with have an appointment with the tractor doctor. I don't know how to fix hydraulics, but I'm gaining experience breaking them.

Oh the peahen may also be fertile. I have seen the peacock mate with her a few times. We would love to have some more peafowl. They eat lots of bugs, we don't have to feed them, they take care of themselves and Kristi sells the feathers of the peacock every year so they are profitable for us!! Only the peafowl and chickens make money. Everything else costs.

First post in oh, a while.

Ah, farm life. Fresh air! (uh, no, not really).

It's kidding season again. So far, we've got 9 boys and 4 girls. One that 'hatched' was eaten by Pig. Oh, I didn't tell you about our pig. We have a pig. No, wait... we have TWO pigs. One regular eating pig and one potbelly pig named 'Mimi'.

Mimi came to us from a woman near San Antone who was moving and had to get rid of Mimi. We needed a companion pig for Pig (big, pink pig) and she was it.

 She's about the crankiest potbelly pig there is. Seriously. Mimi-the-crank. You can't even pet her without her grumbling about it. She, unlike Pig, is a bit of a picky eater. Loves carrots, loves peas and corn, of course, but won't eat much else in the way of veggies. We set her up in the shed (after we cleaned it out) because the shed already has a doggy door on it so she can come and go as she pleases. On really cold days, we don't see her in the yard at all. We also have a heater JUST for the shed, JUST for Mimi. She has destroyed an old futon I got back in the early 80s - during college days. Mike was all upset because Mimi had ripped open the covering for it so she could get to the warmth underneath. We've been hauling that damned futon with us everywhere we move and I'm actually glad to be 'shed' of it. Particularly for a, um, _sweet_ creature like Mimi.

The OTHER pig -- he's more troublesome. The night we got him -- we, uh, were kind of forced to get him, the people who wanted to trade a goat for it called us at 7pm at night and said they were on their way. Well, we didn't have a stall set up for a pig and didn't quite know what we'd do. But we finally decided to put it in the buck pen and would deal with it in the morning.

It had other ideas.

It escaped immediately and was bitten on the leg and butt by Brisket before it ran around the edges of the farm trying to escape. Mike tried to get it from one end and me from another. I almost got it, but it gave us chase for a while. Mike put the dogs into a field that could be closed off so they would stop barking and trying to get it while we chased it around. The poor pig was pretty traumatized and we managed to herd it very near the opening where it got out under the fence that surrounds the buck pen. Mike made sure the dirt was dug out further so when the pig (who knew it was safe inside the pen) got close, he'd be able to go under the fence to get IN. It worked. We were able to herd it in, fill in the hole and voila!

Pig hasn't tried to escape since then.

Mimi came into heat last month and we decided that piglets wouldn't be such a bad idea (we'll see), so we put her in with Pig so he could do his thing. He did. Now Mimi, whose friendliest during her heat, isn't friendly at all, any more. Just a total crank. Reminds me of old men I've known.

For now, we are trying to put together a bunch of supplies we're going to need to be able to process this pig ourselves. Yes, folks, we're planning on killing it, hauling its carcass up and 'harvesting' it. I bought some hide scrapers and Mike and I are putting together a temporary cold smoker so that we can smoke some hams. This is all new to us and although it's exciting, it's also terrifying at the same time. This porker's huge.

Back at it. It's Friday. TGIF.

Dog days of Summer

Really don't know what that means. Probably has something to do with it being hot. Too hot to get up. Too hot to run. To chase things. To lead the goats to a new patch of browse. Being hot, the heat slows things down. Productive things, necessary things. Like worming goats. Goats have worms okay? Get over it. They just do. Doesn't mean they're dirty. Doesn't mean they're spoiled (spoiled as in rotten, not spoiled as in being given their way all the time). They just have certain parasites that show up in their intestinal tracts from time to time. There are ways of managing the worms to be sure. Changing fields every 2 weeks is a good way. The worm's life cycle is about 2 weeks. When the adults have climbed to the tender tops of the waving grasses, with their little grasping limbs waving in the air hoping to ensnare a new bearer, You switch the goats to a new field closing off the wormy one. When the worms realize that you have outsmarted them they get mad, give up and die.
Then the goats frolic in the new field laughing and having cocktails. Eventually they have to poop (please be sure kids avert their eyes when reading that) and the worm cycle begins all over again. It's hard with just 15 acres to have enough fresh browse to eat (for the goats) and be able to rotate fields enough to keep the worms from building up to a dangerous level. Danger from worms? You betcha. In the goats digestive tract they burrow their blood sucking mouthparts into the stomach lining and suck like they've never sucked before. One worm won't harm a goat. But thousands will. The goat becomes anemic, their eyelids will look pink when healthy, white when there are too many worms. If you wait too long a goat may get "bottle jaw" This condition is indicative of an extreme infestation and immediate action is needed to save the goat. Delores has been fighting off bottle jaw for weeks now. We have wormed her with Cydectin a powerful worming treatment. It is having a positive effect but she is not over it yet. We are also drenching her with Red Cell an equine treatment for low red cell count (anemia). We also give her Magic from time to time to boost her energy level. Magic is a mixture of corn oil, molasses and corn syrup. Goats love it. Some who aren't sick come over and demand it.

In other news, the peahen has been sitting on her clutch of 3 eggs for nearly 2 weeks now. In another 2 weeks we are hoping for a blessed event. More peachicks!
The chickens are doing fine. We're getting dozens of eggs a day now and need creative ways to get rid of them. I give them to employees and Kristi sells them at work. The chickens nearly pay for themselves as far as feed costs. The peacock pays the peafowl's way too with feather sales. Oh he hates it when we come after him with the pliers.

Ah, the first snakes of Spring...

Yesterday we arrived back home after driving to Navasota, TX to pick up our package of bees. We made an error over the winter and didn't feed them and the whole hive died. We are feeling a little bad about that partly because of the loss of a lot of bugs (and who wouldn't feel bad about that) but also because dead bees stink something terrible and the whole mess had to be cleaned up. We ordered a new Package of bees. A package is a small wood and screen box about 18 inches by 8 by 5. That is a large enough space for approximately 11000 bees. I didn't count them as they squirm around quite a lot and it's difficult to keep track. It sure looked like a lot of bees. The package price has gone up to $100.00 this year, an increase of 10%. It's worth it as I couldn't imagine having to go collect all of them and funnel them into this little box. (Oh, you want bees? just go over to the bulk bin ((clerk points))They're next to the yellow jackets- there's a scoop and some bags. Help yourself!) Your first test of nerve is after the warehouse guy takes a circular saw and cuts one package from another (they are fastened together with wood strips) and hands you a box with some now AGITATED bees. Uh Thanks I say trying to sound like I mean it and very carefully walk out of the warehouse and down the steps to the truck thinking about what would happen if I dropped it. I placed the package into a cardboard box that Kristi thoughtfully brought to keep the bees calm. We talked about painting the inside of the box with a floral scene next time. When we got back home there was a snake at the top of the driveway to meet us. The first snake of the season. Not 2 hours later we saw another one dead in the street with a helpful vulture working hard to clean it up.
There are a series of steps you have to go through to calm the bees and get them ready for their new home. We put the box in the garage and sprayed them with some cold water. Instantly the buzzing died down. Next they were liberally sprayed with sugar water. After an hour we prepared for the main event. Transferring the bees from package to hive. We carried all the stuff necessary to the hive. What items you ask? A hive feeder. This is an accessory top for the hive body that is made of styrofoam. It has two chambers, one chamber is very small that give the bees access to a feeding trough that will fill with sugar water. The much larger area is a storage area for the sugar water. We brought a pan full of about a gallon and a half of sugar syrup. My bee smoker. This is a small can with an attached bellows that you build a small fire inside. The resulting smoke has a calming effect on the bees and makes it a little less likely that they will come after you en mass. I brought my bee keepers head gear. You don't want them in your face.
The next step is to firmly grasp the package of 11,000 bees, whack the package firmly on the ground, and then open it. This part can be a little nerve wracking. Really it's no big deal. I think the bees are so astonished that anyone would do that that they forget all about attacking. After the whacking you pour and shake as many of the bees out of the package into the hive body as you have the gumption for, lay the package on top of the hive and back away for a little while. At this point there are bees pretty much everywhere. Package, hive, air and ground. They were really pretty calm considering. After a few minutes I carefully moved the package box which still contained about a quarter of the bees to the ground in front of the hive near the opening. I placed the feeder top on top of the hive being careful to squish as few bees as possible. Then we packed up and left. Nobody got stung. Nobody even really got threatened though there were a few stern glances exchanged. Now we leave them alone for a few weeks to set up shop.

Busy weekend

We're up to 19 new kids now, it would have been 20 except for the one that died. This past weekend was productive. Approximately 6 cubic yards of compost was turned, The adult goats were all wormed, the doelings had ear tags installed and the bucklings were, were, well - castrated. It's one of those jobs on the farm that isn't something we enjoy doing but it MUST be done. If we left the little boy goats INTACT, the meat would become gamey tasting in a few months. It's easier on the little ones to do it when they are young. It's easier on us not to do it at all. Sigh. We use an elastrator. This is like a pair of pliers that expands a small, strong rubber band. The band is placed over the scrotum (such words are unavoidable given the subject matter) then you must make sure both "fellas" are in the scrotum. Especially during cold weather the "fellas" may retract back up into the body cavity to keep warm (or hide). If you fail to get both in the scrotum then the goat will still be capable of impregnating females which would be bad. Also male goats have HABITS which are unpleasant at various times of the year and you don't want to have those habits happen (cough).
That's a whole nother unpleasant farm oriented topic which we may or may not discuss at the proper time (August/September).
Anyway once the "fellas" are obviously in the scrotum you release the rubber band from the pliers and it pinches the scrotum above the "fellas". In a couple of weeks the scrotum atrophies due to lack of blood flow and it just drops off somewhere in the barnyard. That isn't the most pleasant thing to find before breakfast.
I made some french cleats for the garage workshop project and I have begun painting them.
We have committed to (bought parts for) a 6 foot by 30 foot hoophouse for starting vegetable plants. This week we will be assembling it and maybe next weekend we'll get the ground prepped for planting.
Our barred rock chicks are about a month and a half old now and they're growing nicely. I'm going to have to build some new roosts in the chicken barn so they can join the general population.
The cornish cross chickens (meat birds) are huge and getting bigger. They need 3 scoops of high protein feed 3 times a day now. They should be fully grown and ready for processing in the first week of March. We may let them go a little longer because we like them between 6 and 7 lbs.

Fourteen and counting

It's been a busy 13 days -- fourteen goats later and here we are. Only one has died -- simply because it fell on its head at birth (we'd have 15, otherwise) and the spread is 7 girls and 7 boys so far. Oh, sorry... 7 doelings and 7 bucklings. Cute as all get out, as they say.

Switching the goats off grain and onto alfalfa pellets -- better for them and will make them look prettier according to Mike. Not that pretty goats are a problem, but the new feed will also make them feel better in the long run. A little more expensive, but it may just be worth it.

Long weeks of cold, nasty weather (the whole country is experiencing the same) and not much relief in the near future.

Kidding season... and they're off!

32 keeps licking her backside and the kid keeps flollipping around in her belly. She and 6 seem to NOT be eating their feed this morning (un'herd' of) and six's udder has increased in size substantially from yesterday. All sure signs kidding is imminent with those two. But then again, 201 is quite ready, too. She'll have twins. Six may have twins, but 32 is likely to have a single.She's a very small goat and I think part Nigerian Dwarf. 

We put these three goats in their own horse stall yesterday and we were right to do so. They each seem very close to cutting loose.

Vacation Blues

Ah, vacation. On the road and heading west. Yes, we're going to California with a knapsack.. in the trunk. We take tamales. We take chocolate, we take other stuff for that ever-important thing called gift-giving. The trip out was wonderful -- although staying in little ratty motels along the way wasn't very exciting, it served its purpose and allowed us to compare the motels on the trip back. The trip back would be almost a total bust - at least for me. In fact, parts of the trip were a bust. I don't usually complain about these things, but...wait. Getting ahead of myself.

On the way up, we visited a small winery that has made port for fifty years or so in California. Ficklin Wineries. Don't go there unless you like the taste of prune juice. We visited with the owners (there were no visitors but us there -- the 'tasting room' was a huge, cold, cavernous warehouse. Yes, quite lovely). We got to hear tales of the water issues, a political snafu that isn't going to be watering our nation's food supply. The water comes from upstate and they're all pissy that the nations major source of fruits (no comment) and nuts (no comment)  is taking up too much of their water. I'm speaking about the snootier parts and more influential folks in the snootier parts of CA. And that's saying something as hey, I'm a Texas gal and when we get all snooty over here, it's because someone's not willing to spit their snuff out the window. REAL snooty.  The only difference between Snooty and Snotty is Tea, and that's fer fanciful folks up there in that Snooty country. They can have it.

I'm probably not allowed to say anything about staying with Mike's friends in Los Altos, but I can tell you that if you have arthritis, don't sleep on an air mattress. Especially one that leaks.

The happiest time was seeing all the kids in Mike's family growing up -- they're all just about to enter the teenage stage or the college stage. Just nice to see kids growing up well. My brother-in-law has Lukemia and is out of work, although he's probably one of the most intelligent folks you'll meet. It just isn't fair.

This trip, the gift that Mike's father gave him was a 1989 Ford F250 with a camper on the back of it. It rebelled (water pump busted) at 9:30pm on the night we left (a Saturday night) in Lost Hills, CA. Weird, but there's actually a mechanic that works on weekends and although we had to stay until Sunday evening, it was done and we were on the road again (although we had to go back a little ways down the road because a hose was loose). They had promised us 1pm, but didn't finish until 5, but at least it was done.

While we waited, we went to the Kern Conservatory -- a long, winding, flat road that took us around  a swamp to look at hawks and other birds. It was actually kind of nice. We ate breakfast in Shafter, CA (yeah, that's what it's called). This is in the heart of Almond country -- those Blue Diamonds or other brands all come from here. The place was called 'Pappy's' and I highly recommend being stuck in this town if you have to be stuck somewhere in California. The folks are friendly and generally not Snooty. They didn't even serve us tea.

We headed through El Paso and finally stopped at a place called Van Horn, Texas at a Ramada Inn (after getting the poo poo on several other places and forcing us to stop at Subway just to eat). In the morning, it had snowed.

So now we have an old truck that's untested on icy roads and a long way to go before we get back to Bastrop. But luckily, there was nothing else that happened and we made it back by 4 in the afternoon.

Our farmsitter did great and the only problem was that the geese had gotten out and fouled our backyard pond and ate the water lily in it. A small price to pay for 11 days' vacation. Everything else was just hunky dory and it was really nice to be home.

Nine Degrees

That's today's low temperature.
Cold. Too cold.

My personal previous low was 19 degrees at Oklahoma's airport. That was cold to a Californian. 9 degrees is physically painful.
I went out in the morning to feed the animals. Usually on weekends Kristi helps but today, for some reason, she was willing to let me take care of them myself. I first went to look at the goldfish pond. Huh. Covered with an inch thick layer of ice. The pump was still running and water was flowing. There was a small area that wasn't iced where the water movement was greatest. A bad day to be a fish.
Next stop was the shed to feed Thud and Eatz, the kitties. It was hard to get their wet cat food out of the cans.
Over to the barnyard and the goats. Stopped to look at their water tank. Frozen. Looks like more than 2 inches thick. Huh. After whacking at the ice for 10 minutes I managed to expose about 20 square inches. Hardly enough for one goat to stick their beak in. Moving into the barn I was congratulating myself for planning ahead and putting a large tub of water in there so the goats would have something liquid to drink. But the tub was crusted over with an inch of ice. That broke up easily and I scooped the ice off to the side of the barn. It was still there today after 5pm.
Fed the goats, gave them a half bale of alfalfa to keep them busy and fill their bellies. A full belly helps to make even a goat forget about the cold for a while.
Next up was the chicken yard. Both waterers were frozen solid. The first little problem. All outside spigots were frozen. I had to take the waterers to the house to refill them. Our 3 day old chicks (50 Plymouth Barred Rocks, 25 Cornish crosses and 5 Barred Rock roosters) were obviously uncomfortable and huddled together under the heat lamps. I fed them and collected the empty waterer to take back to the house. There were no dead chicks and I was happy about that.
After 12 the temps had come up to above freezing and things were beginning to thaw out a little. We went on a walkabout to see if there was any damage to exterior plumbing. In the back yard there is a hose bib. When I touched it it fell off. That would have to be fixed. I get to brush up on my copper soldering skills. Walking around to the front of the house you could hear a loud hissing. The copper pipe for the hose bibs was spraying water. These pipes were covered with thick plastic insulation but still froze. There were 2 spots that had burst. That would be fun. Off to the hardware store and pick up a bunch of copper plumbing parts. We also got some 4" schedule 40 plastic fittings to make a mineral and baking soda feeder for the goats. I spent most of the rest of the day measuring, cutting and soldering copper. My first attempt was a dismal failure spraying water forcefully out of half a dozen spots. I'd made the leak worse than it was. Second attempt fell apart even as I was building it. The third attempt I finally figured out my problem and got it right. We tested it and it works great. Covered the pipe again with insulation and left them dripping. Our low for Sunday morning is forecast to be 25 but at 8:30 Saturday night we are already at 25 and the temps are dropping. We'll see what the morning brings.

Time out

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.