Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Winter!
By now I am sure the entire country has been innudated with the frosty white stuff. I hear it's even snowing in Texas! It finally started to snow up here and I am ready for it. Well, not ready, but I knew it was coming sooner or later (I mean, I do live in the Adirondacks!).
Monday it snowed a little. There was about 2 inches on the ground. Not enough to ski in, but enough that it blanketed everything. Yesterday it was sunny and the snow stayed around. I put the girls out in the pasture. They weren't very happy about that. I had to laugh when the young girls came bounding out of the barn only to just about flip over when they hit the brakes at the door before they hit the white stuff. It was hilarious! They didn't know what to do at all. I shoved them outside anyways and figured they better get to know the snow on a sunny day than on a not so pleasant day.
I knew that the weather man was calling for more snow so last night I ran around and got everything ready for the onslaught. I put the electronet away for the winter. The snow smooshes it and renders it useless so I rolled it up and put it away. I then moved the bucks to the cow shed for the winter. They had been living outside in the back pen. With the snow and cold I figured they might like living the remainder of the time inside the 10' X 12' lean-to shed rather than in an open pen. I even drug their sleeping box all the way from their pen to the shed so they could have an extra sheltered spot to sleep in at night. Aren't I thoughtful? Then I had to clean the chicken house. Until it gets cold enough for the floor of the chicken house to freeze, the floor gets really messy with 15 chickens in a 5' X 5' barn. Once there is snow on the ground they won't step on foot out of the chicken house, even though I leave their door open all the time. They make a mess of the water dish and spill it all over so I wind up cleaning out their house every week. Once the floor freezes I can just keep throwing new shavings on top of the frozen ones until the spring. Oh well, it comes with the territory.
Now the only things left to do before it gets really cold is put the Christmas lights up around the barn and move the rabbits from the outside hutch to cages in the goat barn. Right now the rabbits are fine living in the outside hutch. They have warm nest boxes and plenty of hay. Once it gets to -5F or less I will move them inside to stay warm.
Winter is wonderful, isn't it?
Monday it snowed a little. There was about 2 inches on the ground. Not enough to ski in, but enough that it blanketed everything. Yesterday it was sunny and the snow stayed around. I put the girls out in the pasture. They weren't very happy about that. I had to laugh when the young girls came bounding out of the barn only to just about flip over when they hit the brakes at the door before they hit the white stuff. It was hilarious! They didn't know what to do at all. I shoved them outside anyways and figured they better get to know the snow on a sunny day than on a not so pleasant day.
I knew that the weather man was calling for more snow so last night I ran around and got everything ready for the onslaught. I put the electronet away for the winter. The snow smooshes it and renders it useless so I rolled it up and put it away. I then moved the bucks to the cow shed for the winter. They had been living outside in the back pen. With the snow and cold I figured they might like living the remainder of the time inside the 10' X 12' lean-to shed rather than in an open pen. I even drug their sleeping box all the way from their pen to the shed so they could have an extra sheltered spot to sleep in at night. Aren't I thoughtful? Then I had to clean the chicken house. Until it gets cold enough for the floor of the chicken house to freeze, the floor gets really messy with 15 chickens in a 5' X 5' barn. Once there is snow on the ground they won't step on foot out of the chicken house, even though I leave their door open all the time. They make a mess of the water dish and spill it all over so I wind up cleaning out their house every week. Once the floor freezes I can just keep throwing new shavings on top of the frozen ones until the spring. Oh well, it comes with the territory.
Now the only things left to do before it gets really cold is put the Christmas lights up around the barn and move the rabbits from the outside hutch to cages in the goat barn. Right now the rabbits are fine living in the outside hutch. They have warm nest boxes and plenty of hay. Once it gets to -5F or less I will move them inside to stay warm.
Winter is wonderful, isn't it?
Friday, November 6, 2009
Breeding Season
Just when I thought that everything would move along calmly and easily this year, the goats have to remind me that I should never assume anything.
This year I have two bucks that I want to breed to two does. One buck is a Toggenburg baby that was born on the farm last spring. The other buck is a Nubian that I purchased for full price from a nice farm a couple of hours away. I had high hopes for these boys. The Toggenburg is going to be bred to Lucy and the Nubian is going to be bred to Pepper. This is the way it has to be because I refuse to crossbreed Nubians to anything other than Nubians. I have to breed these boys to these girls.
Last week Lucy came into heat. I put her in with the bucks to see what they would do. The Togg buck was very, very interested in her. The Nubian could have cared less. I let the Togg play for a little while and then put Lucy back in her pen. I was not ready to have Lucy bred for real that day. She should come back into heat in three weeks and that is when I will put her back in with the Togg for real.
Yesterday Pepper came into heat. She was screaming and dribbling and generally losing her mind (as does tend to do this time of year). I put her in with the boys and watched carefully. The Togg was very interested and the Nubian ran away. I pulled the Togg out so that he wouldn't get too excited. I left Pepper and the Nubian in together. I watched and watched and only saw the Nubian run away from Pepper and not try to breed her at all. He was terrified of her and she wasn't even being her normal, bossy self. She was turning on the charm as best she could and he wasn't falling for it.
I am very sad because my Nubian buck is not interested in his girlfriend. I hope that he decides that he wants to be a male and wants to breed the girls. If he doesn't do his job, I don't know what I will do with him. I don't want to keep him around if he isn't productive and I don't want to pay to have him neutered at this point. I can't sell him as a buck if I know that he won't breed and I can't get the money I put into him if I sell him as a wether. Also I don't know where to get another Nubian buck in a hurry.
How come it is never easy?!
This year I have two bucks that I want to breed to two does. One buck is a Toggenburg baby that was born on the farm last spring. The other buck is a Nubian that I purchased for full price from a nice farm a couple of hours away. I had high hopes for these boys. The Toggenburg is going to be bred to Lucy and the Nubian is going to be bred to Pepper. This is the way it has to be because I refuse to crossbreed Nubians to anything other than Nubians. I have to breed these boys to these girls.
Last week Lucy came into heat. I put her in with the bucks to see what they would do. The Togg buck was very, very interested in her. The Nubian could have cared less. I let the Togg play for a little while and then put Lucy back in her pen. I was not ready to have Lucy bred for real that day. She should come back into heat in three weeks and that is when I will put her back in with the Togg for real.
Yesterday Pepper came into heat. She was screaming and dribbling and generally losing her mind (as does tend to do this time of year). I put her in with the boys and watched carefully. The Togg was very interested and the Nubian ran away. I pulled the Togg out so that he wouldn't get too excited. I left Pepper and the Nubian in together. I watched and watched and only saw the Nubian run away from Pepper and not try to breed her at all. He was terrified of her and she wasn't even being her normal, bossy self. She was turning on the charm as best she could and he wasn't falling for it.
I am very sad because my Nubian buck is not interested in his girlfriend. I hope that he decides that he wants to be a male and wants to breed the girls. If he doesn't do his job, I don't know what I will do with him. I don't want to keep him around if he isn't productive and I don't want to pay to have him neutered at this point. I can't sell him as a buck if I know that he won't breed and I can't get the money I put into him if I sell him as a wether. Also I don't know where to get another Nubian buck in a hurry.
How come it is never easy?!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Animal Cruelty
Today the Supreme Court of the United States is weighing in on whether or not images of animal cruelty should be deemed illegal. I find this to be very important to my life and my livelihood. I live on a farm and I work in animal research. Both of these areas of my life heavily involve decisions about animals and their welfare.
The case to be negotiated by the court today involves images of dogfighting obtained primarily in Japan, where dogfighting is completely legal. While I in no way at all condone dogfighting (I think it absolutely stands as a definition of animal cruelty), I find this case incredibly important. On the one side you have the prosecution which maintains that by defining these videos of dogfighting as illegal, you are violating 1st amendment rights to free speech. Also if these images are defined as illegal, what other images will become banned? Will TV shows about hunting, Western movies where horses get shot as part of the storyline, or educational tutorials on proper butchering techniques also fall in the illegal category? Will we no longer be able to watch anything on the Animal Planet channel because the images of a shark eating a seal are deemed as "animal cruelty" and carry a felony charge?
On the other side you have the defense which believes that these images are equal in cruelty and vulgarity to child pornography and serve no benefit to society. I support their argument that dogfighting movies and images of women in high heels crushing mice and kittens (it's a fetish, believe it or not) are inhumane and cruel. I don't support their push to outlaw other images of "animal cruelty". I think their definition is too large and carries too many implications to be placed upon the Constitution. If let out of the box this idea of outlawing images of cruelty could become dangerous to the ability to farmers to make a living or for animal researchers to find a cure for life-threatening diseases.
I have a hard time supporting an idea that could possibly lead the end to educational images of animal butchering or veterinary services. How are veterinarian students expected to learn about internal animal diseases without the aid of educational images of animals? How are farmers expected to learn to humanely slaughter and butcher their animals without the ability to find images of such processes in books, on television, or on the internet?
While I do believe that there are cruel people in the world that get sick entertainment out of torture and harm to animals, I think that these cases need to be dealt with individually and not with a blanket statement by the Supreme Court as to what "animal cruelty" is defined as.
A few examples to illustrate my point about how the idea of "animal cruelty" has gone too far:
1. In my hometown a man accidentally ran over his dog in his driveway. He immediately realized what he had done and took the dog to the only emergency vet clinic that was open at the time (it was a Saturday afternoon). The dog was in good spirits but was holding it's hind leg up and limping a little. The vet took X-rays and determined that the dog did not have a broken bone. The vet recommended that the dog be given IV fluids for treatment of shock and be kept at the vet's over the weekend for a MRI and monitoring, all at an outrageous expense. The man asked what the MRI and monitoring might determine. The vet said that it would tell if there where ligaments torn or if it was just a deep muscle bruise. If the ligaments were torn then the dog would be showing signs of pain and wouldn't be putting weight on the leg by Monday. If it was a bruise then the dog would get better and would be putting some weight on the leg as the bruise healed. The vet's recommendations would cost the man about $6000. The man decided to take the dog home and monitor himself to see if the dog got better. The vet advised him not to do this, but the man did it anyway. On Monday, the dog was not limping anymore and was putting weight on the leg. The man decided that the dog was fine and didn't need further treatment. Monday afternoon the police showed up with an animal control officer to arrest the man and take the dog. The charge was felony animal cruelty because the man did not follow what the vet had recommended.
I have to ask, since when do vets have the right to decide what is best for our animals? The man cared for the dog enough to take him to the vet immediately but simply did not have the resources to do the extraneous tests the vet recommended. Does this make him a criminal?
2. In my hometown, a woman had a feral cat move into her basement laundry room and have kittens in her basket of towels. Every time the woman came downstairs to do laundry the cat tried to attack her. The cat and kittens were also pooping and peeing all over her basement. She call the animal control officer and asked him to come out and get the cats out of her basement. He came and the mother cat tried to attack him as well. He trapped two of the kittens in a live-trap and was able to relocate them. The mother cat and three other kittens remained in the basement where they continued to terrorize the woman. The woman begged and pleaded with the animal control officer over several weeks to get him to take care of the cats. He came back and when he went in the basement the mother cat attacked his leg. He shot it and the three kittens (who were actually almost full grown cats by this time). He had all the cats tested for rabies, which was luckily negative. The woman was able to use her basement again without fear of attack by a wild animal. The animal control officer was arrested on felony animal cruelty for shooting the four cats.
It was his job to protect the public from animals. He did what he believed was necessary to protect himself and the residents of the house from possibly rabid animals. Now, if it had been a family of skunks he had shot, do you think he would be in jail today?
What I am trying to illustrate is that as a society we have become way too opinionated about what is defined as animal cruelty, animal rights, and animal welfare. I am not an animal rights supporter. I am an animal welfare supporter. There is an enormous difference between animal rights and animal welfare. Animal rights is the belief that animals should be afforded the same basic rights as humans. The problem with this idea is that this means that if a cat kills a mouse, the mouse's family has a right to sue the cat under its the due process right. See how silly this idea is? Animals do not have ethics and morals. Animals are cognisant, thinking beings, but they do not have compassion or beliefs or a moral compass. There are some examples of animals sharing or communicating or showing emotions but does this qualify all animals as having human traits? If I have a pet goat, am I guilty of wrongful imprisonment? I would be if animal rightists got their way.
Animal welfare is the belief that animals are living beings deserving of care and respect. This is my position. I raise animals for food. I slaughter animals to feed my family. This does not mean that I do not treat my animals with the utmost of kindness and dignity up until the end. I love every animal I raise, whether it be a meat rabbit or laying hen or pet cat. I believe that if I am going to take that animal's life to support my own, I am going to give that animal the best life I can. I also give that animal the best death I can. I respect it enough to euthanize it quickly and humanely. I respect its sacrifice enough to value every part of that animal. Nothing goes wasted.
I hope that the Supreme Court will be able to see through this decision enough to decide what is proper for life and livelihood and for my animal's life and livelihood.
The case to be negotiated by the court today involves images of dogfighting obtained primarily in Japan, where dogfighting is completely legal. While I in no way at all condone dogfighting (I think it absolutely stands as a definition of animal cruelty), I find this case incredibly important. On the one side you have the prosecution which maintains that by defining these videos of dogfighting as illegal, you are violating 1st amendment rights to free speech. Also if these images are defined as illegal, what other images will become banned? Will TV shows about hunting, Western movies where horses get shot as part of the storyline, or educational tutorials on proper butchering techniques also fall in the illegal category? Will we no longer be able to watch anything on the Animal Planet channel because the images of a shark eating a seal are deemed as "animal cruelty" and carry a felony charge?
On the other side you have the defense which believes that these images are equal in cruelty and vulgarity to child pornography and serve no benefit to society. I support their argument that dogfighting movies and images of women in high heels crushing mice and kittens (it's a fetish, believe it or not) are inhumane and cruel. I don't support their push to outlaw other images of "animal cruelty". I think their definition is too large and carries too many implications to be placed upon the Constitution. If let out of the box this idea of outlawing images of cruelty could become dangerous to the ability to farmers to make a living or for animal researchers to find a cure for life-threatening diseases.
I have a hard time supporting an idea that could possibly lead the end to educational images of animal butchering or veterinary services. How are veterinarian students expected to learn about internal animal diseases without the aid of educational images of animals? How are farmers expected to learn to humanely slaughter and butcher their animals without the ability to find images of such processes in books, on television, or on the internet?
While I do believe that there are cruel people in the world that get sick entertainment out of torture and harm to animals, I think that these cases need to be dealt with individually and not with a blanket statement by the Supreme Court as to what "animal cruelty" is defined as.
A few examples to illustrate my point about how the idea of "animal cruelty" has gone too far:
1. In my hometown a man accidentally ran over his dog in his driveway. He immediately realized what he had done and took the dog to the only emergency vet clinic that was open at the time (it was a Saturday afternoon). The dog was in good spirits but was holding it's hind leg up and limping a little. The vet took X-rays and determined that the dog did not have a broken bone. The vet recommended that the dog be given IV fluids for treatment of shock and be kept at the vet's over the weekend for a MRI and monitoring, all at an outrageous expense. The man asked what the MRI and monitoring might determine. The vet said that it would tell if there where ligaments torn or if it was just a deep muscle bruise. If the ligaments were torn then the dog would be showing signs of pain and wouldn't be putting weight on the leg by Monday. If it was a bruise then the dog would get better and would be putting some weight on the leg as the bruise healed. The vet's recommendations would cost the man about $6000. The man decided to take the dog home and monitor himself to see if the dog got better. The vet advised him not to do this, but the man did it anyway. On Monday, the dog was not limping anymore and was putting weight on the leg. The man decided that the dog was fine and didn't need further treatment. Monday afternoon the police showed up with an animal control officer to arrest the man and take the dog. The charge was felony animal cruelty because the man did not follow what the vet had recommended.
I have to ask, since when do vets have the right to decide what is best for our animals? The man cared for the dog enough to take him to the vet immediately but simply did not have the resources to do the extraneous tests the vet recommended. Does this make him a criminal?
2. In my hometown, a woman had a feral cat move into her basement laundry room and have kittens in her basket of towels. Every time the woman came downstairs to do laundry the cat tried to attack her. The cat and kittens were also pooping and peeing all over her basement. She call the animal control officer and asked him to come out and get the cats out of her basement. He came and the mother cat tried to attack him as well. He trapped two of the kittens in a live-trap and was able to relocate them. The mother cat and three other kittens remained in the basement where they continued to terrorize the woman. The woman begged and pleaded with the animal control officer over several weeks to get him to take care of the cats. He came back and when he went in the basement the mother cat attacked his leg. He shot it and the three kittens (who were actually almost full grown cats by this time). He had all the cats tested for rabies, which was luckily negative. The woman was able to use her basement again without fear of attack by a wild animal. The animal control officer was arrested on felony animal cruelty for shooting the four cats.
It was his job to protect the public from animals. He did what he believed was necessary to protect himself and the residents of the house from possibly rabid animals. Now, if it had been a family of skunks he had shot, do you think he would be in jail today?
What I am trying to illustrate is that as a society we have become way too opinionated about what is defined as animal cruelty, animal rights, and animal welfare. I am not an animal rights supporter. I am an animal welfare supporter. There is an enormous difference between animal rights and animal welfare. Animal rights is the belief that animals should be afforded the same basic rights as humans. The problem with this idea is that this means that if a cat kills a mouse, the mouse's family has a right to sue the cat under its the due process right. See how silly this idea is? Animals do not have ethics and morals. Animals are cognisant, thinking beings, but they do not have compassion or beliefs or a moral compass. There are some examples of animals sharing or communicating or showing emotions but does this qualify all animals as having human traits? If I have a pet goat, am I guilty of wrongful imprisonment? I would be if animal rightists got their way.
Animal welfare is the belief that animals are living beings deserving of care and respect. This is my position. I raise animals for food. I slaughter animals to feed my family. This does not mean that I do not treat my animals with the utmost of kindness and dignity up until the end. I love every animal I raise, whether it be a meat rabbit or laying hen or pet cat. I believe that if I am going to take that animal's life to support my own, I am going to give that animal the best life I can. I also give that animal the best death I can. I respect it enough to euthanize it quickly and humanely. I respect its sacrifice enough to value every part of that animal. Nothing goes wasted.
I hope that the Supreme Court will be able to see through this decision enough to decide what is proper for life and livelihood and for my animal's life and livelihood.
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Joy of Soaping!
Some of you may not know that I am a soapmaker in my free time* (*oxymoron). I have been making goat milk soap for a couple of years now. I make a few hundred bars a year that I sell through myself and in a few local stores. Word of mouth has spread about my soap and people really seem to like it because they keep coming back for more. Here is a picture of my cute packaging for the soap.
I really enjoy making new combinations of scents and colors. I use the same plain recipe every time to make the base batch and then I add all sorts of botanicals, colors, and scents to jazz it up. Each batch is made with food grade vegetable oils, pure sodium hydroxide (lye), goat's milk, white sugar, borax, and glycerin. I get my colorants and scents from Brambleberry Soap Supplies http://www.brambleberry.com/ . I like this soap supply company because they always send me free samples of stuff with every order and they have sample packages of scents and colorants that are cheap and fun to play with. Here is a picture of the latest batch of soap that I made yesterday. It is lemon-sagegrass scent with a brown oxide swirl.
Lately I have been having some issues with my soap separating. I have been using the same recipe for years but for some reason things keep happening. I know why some of the batches had issues. It was because I tried to use a different shaped mold for the soap. Instead of a flat slab mold, I tried a more concentrated loaf mold. Because of the goat milk, the soap tends to heat up as the lye reacts with it and the more concentrated shape of the loaf mold made the soap too hot and it separated. The result was really funky. The soap looked normal on top but when I popped it out of the mold I discovered a black gelatinous goo on the bottom. I scraped the goo off and threw it out. Then I cut the soap into little chunks and put it in the crockpot to remelt. After a few hours in the crockpot the soap was melted enough to pour into the mold again. The second try came out a lot better.
My most recent separation story happened when I made pumpkin spice soap. I thought everything had gone well when I made the soap but I did notice that it didn't look fully mixed when I poured it. I didn't think anything of it. Well, that turned out to be a problem. The soap was very oily and soft when I cut it out of the mold. I decided to let it dry for a few weeks to see if it would firm up. No luck on that and yesterday I finally cut it up and remelted it. I added some milk with lye mixed in to try to equalize the oils. After it melted fully I poured it back into the mold and let it dry. Here is a picture of it after I took it out of the mold this morning. It looks a lot better than it did.
Hopefully this batch will dry better and be ready to sell in time for Thanksgiving. Soap is fun!
Hopefully this batch will dry better and be ready to sell in time for Thanksgiving. Soap is fun!Monday, September 21, 2009
Goat Hiking!
Some of you may have seen the post in my goat Lucy's blog (http://www.lucythegoat.blogspot.com/) the other day about one of my other goats going hiking with me. My Toggenburg, Martha, is currently being trained to be a pack goat. I have taken her on numerous walks in the woods and two big mountain hikes so far. She loves going hiking and really enjoys getting to spend time with people.
Two weekends ago, Martha and I went hiking up Loon Mountain with my friend Carol. We didn't have a key to the gate so we could drive to the trailhead, which meant we had to walk the extra 1.5 miles in to the trail from the road. It was a gorgeous day and we had lots of fun. With the extra mileage tacked on to the hike we didn't make it all the way up the mountain. After 2.5 hours of hiking, Martha started to hesitate and I could tell she was getting tired. We turned around and went home.
This past weekend, Martha and I tried Loon Mountain again. This time we went with a hiking group and were able to drive in to the trailhead. By cutting off the extra hiking time, we were able to make it to the top of the mountain on that gorgeous day. Here are some pictures from that hike:
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Definitely NOT a Cake Wreck!
My mommy made me a cake. I asked for a "nice" cake for a party we had a few weeks ago. Well, when she arrived all the way from Buffalo, she was carrying the biggest, most extravagant cake I could imagine! Here is a picture of the cake in all its glory: 
The cake is two layers of chocolate and two layers of vanilla. My mom frosted the whole thing with chocolate frosting and then made "bark" out of pieces of chocolate and attached them to the cake. She made the roots, knot-hole, and shelf fungus out of rice crispy treats that she molded and then frosted. The pine cones are pieces of cake that are frosted with chocolate frosting and then have almond slivers stuck in them. She made leaves by coating real leaves with colored chocolate and then peeling the leaf off. The top of the stump and butterfly are made from marshmallow fondant. Pretty impressive, huh?
Here is a close-up of a fondant snake that she made to hide among the leaves. Also she made mushrooms out of meringe and coconut.
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