I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.
A lot of Tuesday was the same as Monday. Up at 4:00, outside by 5:00. Feed, water, check babies. Mmm we think Esmarelda is pregnant after all. Her udder has begun to grow just a tiny bit so at this point I’m going to guess early August.
Baby check.
The flies have been horrendous and while the stinky traps work well they are expensive. So I bought bait crystals. Yes they are poison, especially to invertebrates ( relatively low toxicity to animals and humans) so I really don’t want to just toss them everywhere. Experimenting with DIY bait stations to keep it dry. A plastic jar with windows cut out. We shall see.
Milking time. Midnight was first and after talking with one of my goat keeping friends her udder is probably fine and unless she develops symptoms not likely to have mastitis. The we milked Posie and now it’s Mocha’s turn with Posie and Latte looking on. Bambi goes last.
I made a batch of Lavender soap and an experimental batch of Orange Blossom scented lotion. And now I’m too tired to do the dishes. Well they aren’t going anywhere and I’m going to bed.
Oops that’s a bit blurry like my eyes at 5am. Forgot to mention yesterday that I dismantled a chicken tractor in the front yard and moved it to a fallow garden space. So this morning I moved the oldest chicks in, been trying to get this done for 2 or 3 weeks now. Then in the afternoon I moved some chicks from the house to the big brooder coop.
I salted and put away the cheese
Cooked some duck eggs and ate my egg and cheese burro while I
Watered the potted plants so they don’t die. Got done just in time to leave for work.
It was 95°F when I got off work so after checking on everyone I set up and made a batch of Goat Milk Lotion with Lavender essential oil.
Then washed up and made a batch with Lilac.
After washing up some more dishes I took the goats their afternoon hay and did a baby check. The twins are doing good.
Storm is due Sunday but could go earlier. It is a full moon, after all.
Esmarelda says Hi.
Did the usual afternoon chores, feeding, watering, collecting eggs, milking goats. Washed up milk equipment. Labeled all the lotion. Time for bed.
Up at 4:30 outside at 5:00 to hay the goats. Started a batch of soap and started laundry to wash.
The cheese I set last night is ready to drain.
Shade cloth up but I ran out of zip ties.
Found a chain for the gate.
Hung out the pile of udder washing rags I washed earlier
Took hay to my buck Bentley who is staying at my friends house for now. He got a hoof trim while I was there. Realized I was missing a meeting at work. Went anyway because I need zip ties. Meeting was over of course. Realized I had no cash and new debit card hadn’t arrived yet. So go home for $, go back and also get feed.
On the way home. It’s not even 10:00 am. It was actually reading 100 down on the highway.
Check on goats. Got a big piece of tin off the back of the pen so they have more airflow. Water goats and chickens while I’m out there.
Get to taste a White Marseilles fig for the first time. Yummy. Thomas Jefferson brought them to the US from France.
Finished this batch of soap. Unscented with colloidal oatmeal.
Check weather. Supposed to rain next weekend. But we have already exceeded the predicted high for today by several degrees. Afternoon heat check. Chocolate (in back) and Gazelle are fine. I have decided to move Gazelle along so message me if you want to know more.
Got the chèvre draining.
Put away all the milk things I washed last night.
Had toast and cheese for lunch.
Went out and checked on everyone again, filled up water buckets, wet down shade cloth and of course played with baby goats.
Feed & water chickens, pick up eggs. Get ready to milk. Midnight’s udder feels hard so I coax her the milk stand by carrying her twins. So then Chocolate and Gazelle are yelling because they want to go too. Midnight has the tiniest teats ever! They’ll get bigger but it was hard to get much milk out of her. She did super standing for her first milking and after they went back to their pen her boys were nursing. I hope that relieved some pressure. I’ll check her again in the morning.
Bambi is last in the milking line and I decided to move her and Bashful in together in the new pen. Bambi isn’t very nice to Esmarelda, always butting her around. I’m afraid if Storm and her kids get in the way the kid would get hurt. Anyway took some coaxing and manipulating with a pan of grain to get Bashful in. Bambi immediately began yelling and testing the fence and gate. Cross my fingers I did a good enough job.
I grabbed my clippers and trimmed some tree branches to give them something to do. But there was still a lot of yelling even past dark. On the other hand Storm and Esmarelda didn’t seem too concerned that Bambi didn’t come back to their pen.
By the time I brought the milk in the house it was going on full dark. So I filtered milk, washed up all the milk things, a few people dishes, got a bath and went to bed.
I’m not sure Miss Esmarelda is pregnant. At least she isn’t going to kid anytime soon. It’s *possible* that she is pregnant but just later than when I put her in with Bashful, since there were a couple of breakouts.
But I knew Midnight was close, being due June 10th. So I worked like crazy mucking out a pen for her to kid in. While doing that Monday morning I noticed Gazelle was bothering Midnight so as soon as I got done I moved Midnight into the new pen. And none too soon. I went to the house for less than two hours and came back out to twins!
And more video because nothing is cuter than a baby goat! Except two!
And now some more curve balls. The Hooligans (Bambi, Storm and Esmarelda) have destroyed the chain link between their pen and Bashful’s so Bashful has been in with them for a week or so while I was trying to get things situated for Midnight. No big deal, Nubians are seasonal breeders so it wasn’t likely anyone would come into heat before about August. And then this morning Bashful was running and chasing Storm like crazy. Storm is pregnant and due June 19. Apparently pre-birth hormones and discharge smell a lot like a heat cycle. So I had to stop another project and cut and wrestle a cattle panel in to cover the compromised fencing. Then I went back to the priority project of the day.
Which is to finish turning this garden into a buck pen. The garden has root knot nematodes so I can’t plant anything in here until probably the fall of 2023.
Just a little bit more to do now. Some shade cloth, water bucket and a chain for the gate. Maybe able to get to it by Sunday.
I picked some nice Swiss chard but the kale is done for. It’s just too hot, I can’t keep it watered enough.
The tomatoes are doing fairly well so fingers crossed. Most are growing in 5 gallon buckets.
And this morning’s check on the twins.
And an update on Lil’ Latte
A pic of Gazelle with Chocolate in the back, just because. (Gazelle is looking for a new herd to join) I delivered eggs and things to Superior. Fed and watered everybody, collected eggs, watered a ton of potted plants, checked on the twins again (they’ve struggled a bit with the afternoon heat), milked, filled more water buckets, collected and buried 4 old hens that passed from the heat (it was about 110° F this afternoon), gave all the goats some chaffe hay and fresh minerals. Chatted with my friend about goat pen arrangements (details next time), washed up all the milk things and now it’s way past my bedtime…zzzzzzzz
Well I know it’s been months since I’ve posted here. A huge amount of life has been happening and it’s been hard to keep up. So I’ll try (again!) to post more regularly. My friends have gotten the last post holes dug and I’ve gotten some framing done on the goat barn.
Mocha had a single doeling on May 3.
Some chicks hatched May 2
Some Nankins hatched a couple weeks ago
Miss Midnight is beginning to grow a cute little udder. She’s due June 10.
I’m waaaay behind mucking all the winter bedding out of the pens.
I’ve been making Goat Milk Lotion and soap.
Some days I’m too tired to stay up and post. Lots more things happening here than I’ve had time to write about. So will try to post more tomorrow.
I managed to get a little more dry ground for the Hooligans.
A new girl is laying pretty dark
We had snow on the Pinals for New Years Day
A friend gifted me a pile of wood. There is more I need to go get.
I picked up a registered purebred Nubian buckling and had a lovely day out with my friend Karen. His name is Creme de la Creme but I usually just call him Little Man. He’ll be a year old in March so he’s still kind of a baby yet.
My friend Angelica came and helped me cobble together a little shelter for him.
Egg production is picking up.
There have been so many blessings this week. Angelica has come and helped me work on several things. So we got some cull cockerels taken care of, the water bailed off the tarps, some pallets picked up for firewood. Little Man got his first vaccine and a hoof trim. Money has come to me from unexpected sources. I got extra time off work so I have more time to do home things.
