Maybe it's the three weeks of rain we've had recently.... Maybe it's the threat of my employer laying everyone off and moving to North Carolina.... Maybe it's just me and my luck...
I am very discouraged today. It seems like every smug thought I have had lately has blown up in my face. I was just thinking yesterday how well I was managing my goats and how all of them should be very healthy this year with all my good decisions. Karma is a bitch because she reared her ugly head by making my doe, Gloria, sick this morning. She was very lethargic and didn't eat her breakfast. I tested her for mastitis and she tested positive for it in both teats. One teat was worse than the other so I treated the worse one with ToDAY treatment. Hopefully she will be better by this evening when I get home from work. I guess I won't assume that I am doing a good job, just in case karma hears me say it.
Other things have gone that way recently. Every time I assume something is a good idea, it turns out that it isn't. It's very discouraging.
Oh well, thanks for reading about my problems. Hopefully with the promise of sun will come the promise of better things to come.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Baby Goats!
Finally things have settled down enough that I have time to post pictures of some of the new kids.
This is Snickerdoodle. She is one of Cookie's doe kids.
This is Oreo. We call her Double-Stuffed a lot because she is a lot bigger than her twin, Snickerdoodle.
Pepper had triplets all by herself! I was 10 minutes late for the birth and came home to find three cute kids sitting there all cleaned up and ready.
This is Blue Moon. She is the first kid out of Pepper with this coloration. I am considering selling Pepper in order to keep Blue Moon. She is quite a looker!!
This is the buck Rosco. He is very handsome. I may keep him for breeding next year. I love all his gray spots!
Here's all three of the triplets. The one in front is a doe named Silver Dollar. She has a perfectly round silver spot on her side.
There's 4 more Alpine kids in the barn now. I will post pictures of them soon!
This is Snickerdoodle. She is one of Cookie's doe kids.
This is Oreo. We call her Double-Stuffed a lot because she is a lot bigger than her twin, Snickerdoodle.Pepper had triplets all by herself! I was 10 minutes late for the birth and came home to find three cute kids sitting there all cleaned up and ready.
This is Blue Moon. She is the first kid out of Pepper with this coloration. I am considering selling Pepper in order to keep Blue Moon. She is quite a looker!!
This is the buck Rosco. He is very handsome. I may keep him for breeding next year. I love all his gray spots!
Here's all three of the triplets. The one in front is a doe named Silver Dollar. She has a perfectly round silver spot on her side.There's 4 more Alpine kids in the barn now. I will post pictures of them soon!
Friday, April 15, 2011
That's All Folks!
Kidding season is over now. I had 4 does produce 9 kids. I was there for 1 out of 4 of the births. I missed the other 3 kiddings by mere minutes. Luckily all kids were presented normally and all came out with no problems. Six kids are does and three are bucks. The moms are all doing well and producing milk well.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Soon!
The goats are due to kid soon! They can't cross their legs and hold it much longer. Cookie is first up. Being a first freshener, I don't have past gestation lengths to base her due date on. Today she is at 145 days of gestation. Goats can kid anywhere between 145 days to 155 days.
Pepper is next in line to kid. She has kidded twice before at an average of 149 days of gestation. That puts Pepper due on April 7th. She has had two sets of twins for me in the past but this year she looks huge and is already starting to grunt and breath heavy with every movement. I am on the lookout for triplets or quads from her this year.
Lucy is up next. I have her due on April 12th. She has had two sets of twin bucks in years past at 150 days of gestation. I am assuming she will have two bucks this year at 150 days of gestation. She isn't very imaginative when it comes to kids so I would be shocked if she did anything different than this.
After that, Gloria is bringing up the rear. She likes to go late into her gestation with an average of 153 days. She has kidding 4 other times. She had 3 sets of twins and one set of triplets. The set of triplets was a birthing disaster so I am eager to see how she does this year and how many she has. Gloria likes to throw the same color patterns every year -- brown with black trim and white with black trim. She stays true to her Alpine genetics with the color patterns being very classic Alpine in design. I am super interested to see if she gives me kids in different colors than she normally has.
Hopefully the next blog update will be pictures of the new kids! I am praying they all just decide to get busy and all kid this weekend so I don't have to mess around. Here's hoping!!!!
Pepper is next in line to kid. She has kidded twice before at an average of 149 days of gestation. That puts Pepper due on April 7th. She has had two sets of twins for me in the past but this year she looks huge and is already starting to grunt and breath heavy with every movement. I am on the lookout for triplets or quads from her this year.
Lucy is up next. I have her due on April 12th. She has had two sets of twin bucks in years past at 150 days of gestation. I am assuming she will have two bucks this year at 150 days of gestation. She isn't very imaginative when it comes to kids so I would be shocked if she did anything different than this.
After that, Gloria is bringing up the rear. She likes to go late into her gestation with an average of 153 days. She has kidding 4 other times. She had 3 sets of twins and one set of triplets. The set of triplets was a birthing disaster so I am eager to see how she does this year and how many she has. Gloria likes to throw the same color patterns every year -- brown with black trim and white with black trim. She stays true to her Alpine genetics with the color patterns being very classic Alpine in design. I am super interested to see if she gives me kids in different colors than she normally has.
Hopefully the next blog update will be pictures of the new kids! I am praying they all just decide to get busy and all kid this weekend so I don't have to mess around. Here's hoping!!!!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Preparation
Kidding season is right around the corner. It dawned on me last week that I only have four weeks before the first kids are due. It's time to get everything arranged and be ready for the impending births. This weekend I cleaned all the stalls in the barn so I could move the goats into the kidding pens and get everyone situated. I wanted to put Cookie and Pepper in the kidding pens in the front because those have the heat lamp over them. Cookie is due first on March 31st and Pepper is due a week later. Cookie was living with Lucy in the big stall but Lucy was getting pretty grumpy about that situation so I needed to get Cookie separated ASAP. Lucy was going to have Gloria for a roommate for a while. That would have left the back pen open for the kids to go in. I wanted to use the back pen for the kids since it had been vacant for the winter and the parasites should have starved to death by now. With no goats in there, it wouldn't need as much disinfection to be clean for brand new kids to move into. Well, with Gloria and Lucy not getting along, I had to separate them. Lucy went in the back pen and Gloria stayed in the big pen. Now all the pens are full. I am not sure what will happen exactly when the kids arrive. I will need to rotate Cookie and Pepper out of the kidding pens so Lucy and Gloria can rotate in. Lucy is due when Pepper is. I will probably wind up shoving Cookie in with Gloria so Lucy can have Cookie's pen and the kids can have Lucy's pen. The kids will probably wind up in the house and then the garage for a while, so that will buy me some time before I need a kid pen ready in the barn.
Ah, the joys of goat raising!!!!
Ah, the joys of goat raising!!!!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
The Myth of Farming
There's a modern myth being supported throughout America today. It's the myth that farming is easy. I have many friends who have decided that since raising animals looks like fun on TV and in magazines, that they are going to give it a whirl. They see pictures of smiling families surrounded by fat and happy cows, chickens, ducks, sheep, goats, etc. They think that farming is as easy as getting some free animals on Craigslist and bringing them home. It's not that easy.
First of all, once you get the animals home you have to have somewhere to put them. I have heard many horror stories of people keeping animals in inadequate enclosures only to have the animals either escape and get killed or have varmints enter the enclosures to kill the animals. It is not usually mentioned in the glossy "farming" magazines that goats can jump over almost any fencing, cows can push through most barriers, and that not much stops a weasel from breaching a chicken coop. Most of my friends that brought their animals home to ill-prepared housing, wound up with dead animals in short order. It's not as easy as just getting the animals to your property and then letting them go to live idyllically with you.
Secondly, once you have secured adequate housing for the animals that keeps them in and varmints out, you must feed the animals. All animals need to be fed on a daily basis. Unless you have a large pasture situation with fresh, free flowing water all the time; you must feed and water your animals daily, if not twice daily. If you live in a location where snow is on the ground for weeks at a time, then you most certainly have to feed your animals daily at least part of the year. They cannot be expected to survive and produce through the winter without gathered forage and fresh water. When considering housing for your animals, you must also consider food storage and water accessibility. If you have hooved animals, then you must certainly have hay. Hay takes up a lot of real estate and is tricky to transport and store. My same friends that brought their animals home to inadequate enclosures, also brought them home to inadequate food and water supplies. The animals that weren't killed from poor housing, died due to starvation or disease related to poor food sources.
Third, animals cannot be expected to live on food and water only. Each species has health needs beyond just food, water, and housing. Chickens need to be dusted periodically for lice, they need to be dewormed occasionally, they need supplemental calcium, and they need the right combination of vitamins and minerals to produce eggs. Goats must be supplemented with minerals at all times, they need to be dewormed periodically, they have vaccinations that must be administered, their hooves constantly need trimming, and if they are milk goats they need to be properly milked every day, twice a day. People don't often think of the other things that go into raising animals beyond food and housing. When their chickens mysteriously die due to massive mite infestation or their goats die from worms, that is when they learn the hard truth about supplemental health care. They don't learn it from TV commercials and movies.
Lastly, animals are a lot of work. Beyond needing to be fed and watered daily, their enclosures must be cleaned periodically, their housing must be repaired, the water buckets need to be cleaned, and the list goes on and on. If you have dairy animals, you must milk them daily, twice a day, every single day. You can't skip a milking just because you have something else to do. This can spell disaster for any milk producing animal. If you have meat animals, then you have to get them from living animals to edible pieces of meat somehow. This takes a lot of thought and effort.
In conclusion, I would like to see more magazines show the true colors of farming. I would like to see people who have learned the hard truths of farming tell their friends and neighbors who want to get animals. All animals deserve to be treated well and ignorance of proper animal care is no excuse for the death of the animal.
First of all, once you get the animals home you have to have somewhere to put them. I have heard many horror stories of people keeping animals in inadequate enclosures only to have the animals either escape and get killed or have varmints enter the enclosures to kill the animals. It is not usually mentioned in the glossy "farming" magazines that goats can jump over almost any fencing, cows can push through most barriers, and that not much stops a weasel from breaching a chicken coop. Most of my friends that brought their animals home to ill-prepared housing, wound up with dead animals in short order. It's not as easy as just getting the animals to your property and then letting them go to live idyllically with you.
Secondly, once you have secured adequate housing for the animals that keeps them in and varmints out, you must feed the animals. All animals need to be fed on a daily basis. Unless you have a large pasture situation with fresh, free flowing water all the time; you must feed and water your animals daily, if not twice daily. If you live in a location where snow is on the ground for weeks at a time, then you most certainly have to feed your animals daily at least part of the year. They cannot be expected to survive and produce through the winter without gathered forage and fresh water. When considering housing for your animals, you must also consider food storage and water accessibility. If you have hooved animals, then you must certainly have hay. Hay takes up a lot of real estate and is tricky to transport and store. My same friends that brought their animals home to inadequate enclosures, also brought them home to inadequate food and water supplies. The animals that weren't killed from poor housing, died due to starvation or disease related to poor food sources.
Third, animals cannot be expected to live on food and water only. Each species has health needs beyond just food, water, and housing. Chickens need to be dusted periodically for lice, they need to be dewormed occasionally, they need supplemental calcium, and they need the right combination of vitamins and minerals to produce eggs. Goats must be supplemented with minerals at all times, they need to be dewormed periodically, they have vaccinations that must be administered, their hooves constantly need trimming, and if they are milk goats they need to be properly milked every day, twice a day. People don't often think of the other things that go into raising animals beyond food and housing. When their chickens mysteriously die due to massive mite infestation or their goats die from worms, that is when they learn the hard truth about supplemental health care. They don't learn it from TV commercials and movies.
Lastly, animals are a lot of work. Beyond needing to be fed and watered daily, their enclosures must be cleaned periodically, their housing must be repaired, the water buckets need to be cleaned, and the list goes on and on. If you have dairy animals, you must milk them daily, twice a day, every single day. You can't skip a milking just because you have something else to do. This can spell disaster for any milk producing animal. If you have meat animals, then you have to get them from living animals to edible pieces of meat somehow. This takes a lot of thought and effort.
In conclusion, I would like to see more magazines show the true colors of farming. I would like to see people who have learned the hard truths of farming tell their friends and neighbors who want to get animals. All animals deserve to be treated well and ignorance of proper animal care is no excuse for the death of the animal.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Farm Stand Coming Soon?
I think I will try to open a farm stand this summer. I have property that is on a major road and it has an open spot that will fit a small barn or lean-to and a parking area. I would love to sell fresh eggs, produce, crafts, soap, canned goods, baked goods, flowers, and meat from the little stand. My neighbors could all pitch in and send in things to sell. It would be a community stand for locals to sell and buy things from.
My friend and I were talking about it this morning. Both of our jobs are currently in jeopardy with recent budget woes and threats of the company moving to Florida. Neither of us are in a situation where we can move to Florida, so we have to think of something different to do in order to survive. Our location doesn't have many other job opportunities, so both of us are facing possible long-term unemployment. We have decided that if we can start our own little business, that may be enough to help us not fall into a hole of debt and poverty. We are both crafty people with small homesteads. I have goats and chickens and make goat milk soap. She has chickens and cows and grows an enormous garden. We could both produce enough stuff to get a little farm stand going.
The farm stand wouldn't be solely dependent on the stuff my friend and I make/grow. We would also take in crafts and food from other local people and sell it there. It would be like a permanent farmer's market. There's many people in the area that produce more than they can eat and also make crafts on the side. They would jump at the chance to have a location to sell at. The selling could work on commission or volunteer time at the store. There would be no limit on how much stuff you had to bring to sell. It could be as little as a few dozen eggs, or as much as a weekly order of beef and pork. We could also get an ice cream machine and hot dog stand going at the same location. The only rules we would have about stuff for sale would be that it has to be grown locally or made locally. No importing of stuff from large distributors. No mass produced products (except for maybe the ice cream mix and the hot dogs). We would have to follow the laws and regulations regarding sales, taxes, and food preparation.
If I built a small lean-to / barn, that would be plenty of space to put up some shelves and tables to accommodate all sorts of goods. It could be like the larger farm stands that dot the Amish country. They sell all sorts of goods and produce with very little overhead. The stand wouldn't need electricity for the first few years (unless we had an ice cream machine or freezer for meat selling). We might even be able to get away with a dirt floor and only 3 walls for a while. If it worked and we made money, we could invest that money into flooring, running water, and electricity. Eventually the store could be open all year round to sell Christmas gifts and other products to year-round residents.
This is the plan for now. Even if I have a job this summer, I would love to start a little farm stand. It wouldn't have to be much at first, but it sure would be nice for my friends and neighbors (and myself) to have an outlet for our products and produce.
My friend and I were talking about it this morning. Both of our jobs are currently in jeopardy with recent budget woes and threats of the company moving to Florida. Neither of us are in a situation where we can move to Florida, so we have to think of something different to do in order to survive. Our location doesn't have many other job opportunities, so both of us are facing possible long-term unemployment. We have decided that if we can start our own little business, that may be enough to help us not fall into a hole of debt and poverty. We are both crafty people with small homesteads. I have goats and chickens and make goat milk soap. She has chickens and cows and grows an enormous garden. We could both produce enough stuff to get a little farm stand going.
The farm stand wouldn't be solely dependent on the stuff my friend and I make/grow. We would also take in crafts and food from other local people and sell it there. It would be like a permanent farmer's market. There's many people in the area that produce more than they can eat and also make crafts on the side. They would jump at the chance to have a location to sell at. The selling could work on commission or volunteer time at the store. There would be no limit on how much stuff you had to bring to sell. It could be as little as a few dozen eggs, or as much as a weekly order of beef and pork. We could also get an ice cream machine and hot dog stand going at the same location. The only rules we would have about stuff for sale would be that it has to be grown locally or made locally. No importing of stuff from large distributors. No mass produced products (except for maybe the ice cream mix and the hot dogs). We would have to follow the laws and regulations regarding sales, taxes, and food preparation.
If I built a small lean-to / barn, that would be plenty of space to put up some shelves and tables to accommodate all sorts of goods. It could be like the larger farm stands that dot the Amish country. They sell all sorts of goods and produce with very little overhead. The stand wouldn't need electricity for the first few years (unless we had an ice cream machine or freezer for meat selling). We might even be able to get away with a dirt floor and only 3 walls for a while. If it worked and we made money, we could invest that money into flooring, running water, and electricity. Eventually the store could be open all year round to sell Christmas gifts and other products to year-round residents.
This is the plan for now. Even if I have a job this summer, I would love to start a little farm stand. It wouldn't have to be much at first, but it sure would be nice for my friends and neighbors (and myself) to have an outlet for our products and produce.
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