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. 

Hot and Humid

The weather has been miserable this week, 105°+ and very humid with almost no rain. The heat has been giving me a headache in the afternoon. Today I even took a nap with an ice pack on my neck. However that has not stopped the goats. This morning when I moved Posie and Mocha to the hill pen I heard a noise as I was latching the gate and turned around to see Midnight hop the fence at that short spot. And Chocolate had followed her by the time I got down the steps. Put Chocolate back in just to have her do it again before I could get to Midnight. So quick I grabbed my loppers and cut some burro brush and stuffed it in the fence. Got the girls put back and was about on time for work.  

How I left them. 

They were still in when I got home. When I got up from my nap I cut and stuffed in some weed trees. Hopefully that will help. 

Got everyone fed, watered, milked. And that’s about all for today. 

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

Got a few little jobs done on Friday like putting cattle panel over the hole in Posie’s gate 

I stuffed the pallet fence with weed tree saplings to help give these girls a little shade in the late afternoon. Would like to extend that some. Have also thought of being able to tie off a little shade cloth high up on the sticks for more shade. 

Didn’t really show up in the pic but there’s a huge hole in a fallow garden space. Maybe a rabbit burrow as it looks bigger than most of the ground squirrel holes I’ve seen. Goes quite always down. 

Had a lovely time at market and came home to Chocolate and Gazelle going walk about.  They even had Posie’s gate open. 

Apparently the wooden fence post I hinged to dried out and the pintles are twisting. Got the girls in, temporary fix. Will work on it when it cools down some.

At milking time I discovered there was more to the story. Posie has broken off her small scurs…

AND Mocha has blue paint on her horns (like Chocolate and Gazelle.  Mmmm so now I wonder if Posie and Mocha got out and they got the other gate open.  Mmmm. 

Digger looking cute and innocent. He’s getting a little better about chasing the cat and chickens IF I catch him BEFORE he actually does anything. Like we are walking and I see a loose chicken and Digger is paying too much attention to it. If I tell him NO and distract him it’s good. 

I have no idea what was sooo interesting under the car. 

Tonight’s milking was interrupted by a thunderstorm with a little rain so took even longer than usual. Got the bottle baby, Digger and me some dinner and went to bed. 

#appreciation

I appreciate all my customers that help support my crazy life 😀

Woot. It’s Done!

5:00 am. Good morning. Little goat. 

Storm and bottle baby’s brother 

Feed Digger his breakfast 

6:00am hay all the goats and check water buckets 

Feed the chicks. This year’s hatches were about 90% male 😒

Feed all the adults 

6:45am off to work. Back about 11:00. Feed me, the bottle baby and Digger. Fill some water buckets. Digger likes to drink out of the hose. 

Ran some errands. Came home and while it was hot it was cloudy so I got the gate set on the new pen. Moved Midnight’s boys in. I want to start separating them some during the day. 

They didn’t seem too concerned that mom wasn’t around and paid no mind to her hollaring   

Milked Posie and Mocha then Midnight. After milking I put her in with her boys. Then I went and got Chocolate and Gazelle. Then I milked Bambi and Storm. 

Chocolate is checking the fence out. I realized that I had forgotten to screw the pallets to each other and I hadn’t finished wiring one of them to the T post so it was wobbling. Got that done. And then it was dark. 

Ate some dinner and going to bed. 

PS. This should have posted on Wednesday but somehow didn’t finish upload