Farmer Friday

Who says dam raised kids aren’t friendly?  Mine are all very friendly although not as pushy as bottle babies. This is one of Midnight’s boys. 

Argh! Digger! Can’t let you out of my sight! Played in the chard bed again!

Well. It looks like Chocolate wasn’t pregnant after all. She came into heat this week and spent a couple of days keeping Bashful company. If I don’t see another heat cycle in a couple weeks then I’ll expect kids in December. 

Esmarelda what are you doing? Digging for China?  There was no hole there and now it’s a foot deep. 

Didn’t get rain the other day but got a rainbow 

Trying to turn this packing crate into a hay feeder. Besides being in the way the goats kept trying to eat the screws. 

I added some pallet wood to help stiffen the sides and some 2x6 legs

Does it pass inspection girls?

Probably the only time they’ve eaten out of it like this. Gazelle and Chocolate usually stand it it. 

And in the meantime Esmarelda broke the hay feeder in her pen. Fortunately it was a pretty easy fix. 

Poor Digger   Got a wasp or bee sting. Didn’t stop him from trying to chew on everything in sight. He was fine and almost no swelling in a couple hours. 

I was a bit concerned that maybe he tried to play with this little king snake but there weren’t any puncture wounds. 

Mmmm. Gazelle objected to Chocolate being on the other side of the fence with Bashful and beat up my new cattle panel. 

Ugh.  At least 5 tries to upload now….

More Progress

Working on getting a flat space

Getting closer

Green paint marks where I still need to pick

You know I need to work right there Posie 

Posie makes me laugh 

A new set of paint lines

Still working on this bulge. The ground in this spot is almost as hard and dry as a rock. There are layers of calcium gluing rocks and gravel together 

Caramel is still being ridiculous and is trying to dry up. I don’t think she’s cut out to be a long term milker in which case she may be looking for a new home. 

After some days of zero eggs due to the fowl pox epidemic here things are starting to pick up a tiny bit. 

I cleared all the vegetation in this bed and raked up as much of the nematode infested roots as I could. Those go straight to the trash. 

Added gypsum for calcium

Made furrows and filled with worm castings 

Planted salad mix, spinach and cabbage 

The pink cosmos have started blooming. And the mums should start this week. I can’t believe how fast this year has gone by. 

#appreciation

I so appreciate that the weather has been beautiful so I can work outside a lot. 

Some Progress

Don’t know what’s up but Caramel and Posie have been butting heads. 

After Caramel tried to break the milk stand I added some runners so it can’t tip forward again. 

I cut off the little seat because it seemed to be making it unstable and raked and leveled the ground. So far so good 

I made up some soil blocks  and planted some seeds 

I’ve worked two mornings in the hill pen. I’m afraid this corner isn’t going to hold so hot the idea to wrap another cattle panel around it and fill the space with rock

I think it will work out ok. 

And I worked some more on the slope. 

Sunrise was beautiful this morning 

Bambi did not want to come up the hill today!

I made some salty rennet cheese. 

And cooked down some chicken broth 

Apparently I’m spider woman since not only is my house full of webs they are now taking over the car. Don’t mind the hay. The truck was down a couple of weeks 

And tonight Caramel was just ridiculous for absolutely no reason at all. She didn’t even finish her grain (she’s not a grain hog like Posie and doesn’t eat it all on the stand). The dog was no where to be. Seen   I really don’t know what’s up with her. 

#appreciation

Appreciating some extra time off to get things done 

The Best Laid Plans

This afternoon has been a wild ride! First it cooled off a bit earlier that the last few days so I got out and did chicken chores before time to milk. I was hoping that would give me a little time before dark to do some garden stuff   Boy that didn’t pan out at all. 

First, remember when Posie got out a couple weeks ago and was outside the perimeter fence?  Well I hadn’t got around to a permanent fix and she got out again. Today she was actually right by the pen Bambi and her gang are in and they were butting heads through the fence. Luckily  I came out with milking supplies right then and even luckier Posie was right by a gate. As soon as I opened it up she came on in and went to the milk stand. While milking I noticed that she had broken off her scur (a small bit of horn) and it was bleeding so I had to run get the blue kote and doctor it to keep the flies off. 

Then it was Caramel’s turn to milk. 

About half way through milking Caramel Bambi managed to get out of her pen and was trying to eat Caramel’s grain. So I tied her up out of the way. While I was taking Caramel back to her pen Bambi managed to get herself all tangled up in the rope. She had it wrapped around her back legs, her udder and she was laying on it and couldn’t get up. I got her untangled and up on the milk stand and before I could go pass out snacks to Vicki, Storm and Showers, Storm managed to get out. Whew. Got her rounded up, snacks delivered, Bambi milked and put back in her pen. 

Then I went to get everybody’s hay and discovered I’d forgotten to chain the gate and Caramel’s gang was out. Got them all rounded up and their hay delivered. Gave Midnight, Aelf, Chocolate and Gazelle their little grain treat. Filled up water buckets, remembered to chain Caramel’s gate, found a chain and snap to chain up Bambi’s gate. Got the milk in the house, filtered and put away. 

AND I DIDN’T GET A SINGLE BIT OF THIS ON CAMERA Because I had just finished filming the following video and not only was my battery low I was out of storage space on my phone. 

 
Sooo. Adventures with goats. Really I ended up laughing a lot because one thing after another after another and really what else could I do but laugh and shake my head. But boy was I tired by the time I got in the house. 

#appreciation

I appreciate and am thankful that nobody got hurt. That Posie didn’t decide to go walkabout   And everything turned out fine in the end.