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….

Security Improvements

Just as I was starting chores this morning I hear a goat kid hollaring in distress. And find Midnight and Chocolate have hopped the fence again. One of Midnight’s boys was hollaring because he couldn’t find mom. 

Got them back in and worked on changing out the pintles for the gate so it won’t fall off every time I open it. 

Then things began to get complicated. It looked like Chocolate was coming into heat. She was even trying to ride the little bucklings.  So I slipped her into Bashful’s pen and yep she’s in heat. So likely December babies to come. But in this pic you can see what happened later. Gazelle and Chocolate began fighting through the fence. They bent up a brand new cattle panel. Mostly dented from Gazelle’s side. 

So I found a metal beam from an old shed we tore down and wired it right across where they were butting heads. That seemed to put a stop to it. 

Stopped to unload the car and clean up the driveway to get ready for hay delivery. I scored this cool packing crate yesterday. With some legs and some beefing up will make a great hay feeder It’s about 6.5’ long and about 2’ wide. 

But it’s longer than this little roof so started to add on. I got the T post set and another pallet put in place and was scrounging around for some long enough 2x4s to make the roof wider when Gazelle started pounding the fence so had to stop and fix that like I explained before. 

Puppies are like toddlers. When it gets too quiet you better go check. In this case Digger was just napping in his mud hole. 

I did work over here where they are hopping the fence. 

I found a long board to add in. I meant to cut some weed trees to put in the gaps but by then it was getting really hot.  It was 81°F at 5:00 am and by 10 it was miserable. 

I did manage to change out the biggest pad on my cooler. That by the way is a blue pad.  It was so clogged up with lime no air was getting through. Hopefully I’ll get the other 2 sides done tomorrow. But changing out just one side made a big difference in air flow in the house. 

Went to feed the bottle baby at noon and Digger decided he needed to cool off in the goats water. Of course I had to clean and refill buckets after that. 

And at milking time the storm rolled in. I got Posie milked ok and then Mocha and I got soaked   I didn’t even strip her out like I usually do. But that’s ok since she’s still nursing Latte. 

Then I put stuff in the shed and ran to the house sopping wet. Dried off and changed my shirt. Waited for the storm to pass and finished up milking. Fed Digger and the bottle baby. Trying to decide what to have for dinner. Something simple.  I’m too tired to think. Good night. 

To Market

I spent the morning at our Globe-Miami Farmers Market. Came home, unloaded, ate lunch, fed the bottle baby. Then I went and got feed and went to get a couple things at the grocery store. Got back and started chores. I haven’t had a chance to fix the gate issue on Midnight’s pen and it came down again. Midnight and her twins got out. I got the gate back up and Midnight was easy to catch and put back. Instead of putting the twins back in I put them in with Bashful.  They are old enough to begin separating from mom. And since the pens are together Midnight didn’t get too freaked out her boys weren’t in with her. Bashful is a pretty gentle guy and doesn’t seem to mind babies. 

Shortly after that we got a heck of a storm. My battery was about to die so no pics of the creek running. A lot of high winds made a mess of tarps and shade cloth. The wind also blew the tin off the chicken tractors and those birds were quite soggy.   Silly Digger looked like he was out playing in it the whole time. 

Mocha and Posie were up on the hill when it hit and got pretty wet. But mostly they care about eating. 

With this rain the flies will be terrible so tomorrow I’ll have to try and work on fly control among other things. And now good night. 

Farmer Friday

Been super hot and humid this week. I have gotten a couple little rain storms, maybe .2” altogether. The cattle panel arch over Posie’s pen collapsed. 

And came down so far I couldn’t stand up in there. I had to bale the water off and get the tarp fastened back where it belonged. 

Stuck some more sticks in the pallets but not enough to keep Chocolate from hopping over again. 

Moved the last 3 old olive eggers from the front yard to the big chicken house. 

Then moved the ducks into the pen Midnight’s gang was in. I’ll be moving the compost chickens into there too so they can scratch up and break down the deep bedding in there. 

That left the front yard kennels empty so I took down the shade cloth and tarps and started loosening up the ground. Most of it was hard and dry so watered it some. This area is shaded part of the day but I think I can grow some nice greens in here and the kennel will keep Digger out of them. 

Because he likes to play with plants. That was some nice Swiss chard. Good thing it grows fast this time of year. 

And this morning Posie got out and into the hill pen. She is strong and outweighs me so there’s no stopping her when she takes a notion. So I just shut the gate. Of course that set everybody off. And then Mocha got out. She was mostly looking for snacks on the milk stand but I got the bright idea to put her up on the hill too. Latte, her kid, is old enough to start weaning so I can get more milk. So everyone yelled all day, including Midnight, Gazelle, Chocolate and even Midnight’s kids. And of course Mocha and Latte were the loudest. 

And Mocha gave me half a gallon tonight instead of 2 1/2 pints. Milk is supply and demand so this will help increase the supply. 

And then Digger saw himself in the shiny BBQ. Made me laugh. 

To Market to Market

Eggs

Goat Milk Soap 

Goat Milk Lotion 

Found a few small tomatoes 

Swiss chard

Had a lovely time at the Globe-Miami Farmers Market this morning. Sold out of some lotion scents. 

The goats cracked me up this afternoon. That’s Digger going to explore the hill pen. Bashful’s pen and Posie’s pen have line of sight to that area and they immediately began “telling” on him!

This afternoon made a batch of lotion and did some laundry and dishes then all the usual chores. And now, again it’s way past my bedtime.  Zzzzzzz. 

What A Weekend: adding to my crazy train

Saturday of course I went to the Globe-Miami Farmers Market. 

Sold lots of lotion, word is getting out!  And I really appreciate all my customers, old and new, for buying products so I can keep running this crazy train. 

Got home from market and made two batches of lotion. Probably need to make about four more!

Sunday was a road trip up between Snowflake and Concho. 

Mmm. Am I lost?   Sure glad it hasn’t rained here recently, I’d never get the van down this “road”. 

An almost 3 hour drive to pick up this fluffball. Half Sarplannic and half Anatolian. Livestock Guardian Dog. 

Looks like he will look like his dad when he grows up. 

He barked and growled most of the way home. We stopped in at TSC to pick up a collar and new leash and he did pretty good in the store. 

I put him in the small pen next to Bambi’s crew that 

Bashful started out in.  He whined, cried, barked, growled and tried chewing on the fence, he wanted to get in with the goats so bad. But the girls were not happy. Lots of snorting and foot stomping. 

Since I have to take Bambi and Storm through that pen to milk I decided to just have him out near the milk stand but where he wouldn’t be in the way. 

After about an hour he finally just passed out for awhile.  After milking I fed little goat and little dog and listened to little dog howl and bark off and on all night. Hopefully tonight is quieter!