Flooded Barn, and a Flood of Love

I've recently gone through something completely unexpected that's caused me to see how being prepared in an emergency is a real need, even for those who don't think they live in an area where there is danger.  We've never had a real flood, never had a tornado, no hurricanes...but this  spring we have had our own personal flood!  We had a record snow fall this month.  I mean a record month of snow, not a record April.  It REALLY snowed!  Our land is quite low, and our barn is actually lower than the surrounding land.  We're on a slope of the Sawtooth Mountains along the western edge of Lake Superior.  All the snow that melts on the ridge comes down to the lake. The spring thaw has really messed up the barn because of how much snow we had this month. There were 6 inches of water in it a few days ago. We had to pump it out and dig trenches to drain the water away.  I was up working on the mess almost all night that night.   All the goats are living on pallets with plywood over them to keep them off the damp floors. Thankfully, the water level seems to be going down now. In a day or two, we'll be able to muck out all the stalls and get the girls and kids into some clean and completely dry living quarters.  That will be such a job!  I'm trying not to really think about what a big job that's going to be, or how much work it has already been. Thank God it's working out! I was pretty upset and worried for a few days! All the mom's and babies continue to thrive in spite of the upset. :)
It is now clear that I need to think about what to do in the case of something like this occurring again, or a forest fire which we do occasionally have very near us.
I'm very thankful to our good friends, who came to help put pallets down and cover them with the plywood pieces.  You helped immeasurably, both the goats and my peace of mind! :)  You are a true blessing to us!  You were a flood of loving care just when we needed it the most.  I hope we can bless you as much as you have us. :)

Meet Twist, Latte and "Butcher"

Okay, I know, I've been preoccupied...again...by goats...again.  It becomes an addiction of sorts, I think.  Right now, I own 13 goats.  My husband never would have thought that possible.  Three years ago, the plan was to purchase two does.  Two.  Yeah.

I went to Hibbing for three more goats on Tuesday, and we've been getting to know each other for a few days now.  Time for you all to meet her too!  So meet Twist, her daughter Latte, and her son, who is "affectionately" titled "Butcher".  My 8 year old came up with that name so we would all remember his destiny, and not fall in love.  That should work...yeah.

French's Dream Twisted Sister

Latte, near my knee, and little boy behind her.

Cute babies!

These Nubian babies, almost 2 weeks old, are the same weight right now as my nearly 6 week old Nigerians are.  However, they are a whole different animal.  They're amazingly long and lean right now, as is their mom.  I hope to get a bit of weight on all of them soon.  I trimmed up Twist's hooves this morning, and she was really good about it.  However, she's not so good about having her udder touched.  We're going to have to be working on that, as I plan to begin separating her kids from her overnight and milk her in the mornings soon.  I hope she will be a good milker for us.  Her mother is a great milk maker, with great milk stand manners.  So far, Twist seems to be very good at holding her milk back for her kids, and they keep her udder pretty empty.

That's what I've been up to lately!  That, and slogging through about 18 inches of new snow.  The drifts on the way to the barn are above my knees now.  It's been a perfect winter these last two weeks.  Too bad it didn't do this in December or January! :)

The babies are here!

Please CLICK to see posts about what's been going on for the last week and a half here at North Forest Farm!

It's been a crazy, sad, amazing, tiring, exciting, and joyful ride!

Waiting For Goat Kids Can Be Funny

Today marks day one of waiting for the goats to kid.  Cupcake is due first, and today is day 143.  We have the baby monitor hooked up now, and it's pretty interesting having the barn sounds inside.  When you're half asleep, you can come to some strange conclusions about what's going on.  :)  Early this morning I thought the chickens had gotten out and made their way to the house.  Dan got up around that time to look for "the crazy toy we had that sounds like a rooster".  I'm going to have to get a human kid to go to the barn and bleat like a doe in labor so I can tell where to set the volume. ;)
I think Cupcake will go a little while yet.  I can still feel tail ligaments and her udder isn't very full yet.  She's looking hollow though, so it shouldn't be too long.

Cupcake a few days ago.

Projects

We've been working on a few goat related projects for the last few days. Our new buck pen is nearly finished.

My sweet brother moved this lovely big rock into this space for us using his excavator. His little daughter LOVES the excavator, and now I love it too! :) It was so awesome of him to do this for us. I'd always wanted a real, genuine rock for the goats to play on. It's perfect for the bucks. They love playing king of the hill or napping on the rock.
The white "buck house" is really an old fishing shack. I think it'll work for a while, but at some point it will probably have to be replaced.
And the gate...I'm sure it isn't easy to miss, LOL! Hubby built it VERY solidly, so it would last a while. Here's a gate building tip: If you're ever going to build a gate, make it open IN. After several gates here, we've finally learned our lesson. It is SO much easier to get into a pen if you can "push" the animals away from the opening with the gate as you go in. I'm sure all of you knew that already. I'm a slow learner and not very observant, so I didn't know that, but I'm getting there. :)

This next project, I'm pretty pleased with. It's a hay feeder made of a crib rail. I'm not sure if I blogged about this or not, so if I did, bear with me.
All my trouble with hay feeders began when the goat kids were born this spring. Nothing was safe for them. I nearly had Shamrock get hung in one of the commercial hay feeders, and I've have a friend who had a kid hang herself in one of them. Another friend had a doeling break her leg getting hung up in one, so I took them down and put them on the outside of the wire fencing or security panels. That was safe, but I was never sure the goats were getting enough hay trying to get it through 2x4 inch rectangles.
 I then got a piece of a cattle panel with 6x6 inch squares, bent it into a crescent and attached it to the wall. I hoped that might work to keep the goats out of the hay and be safe, but the kids could get through the squares and quickly adopted it as a safe haven. Of course, they used it as a bathroom as well.
A lady on a forum I belong to had the idea of using a crib rail to make a hay rack, so I decided to try it. I finally got the guts to try out the plan I had formed in my mind for building it. This was my first building project, and I'm really pleased! I only had to have hubby help with two cuts on the table saw, and hanging it on the wall. I've been really wanting to get better at using tools and building things, especially since hubby has said, "This buck pen is my LAST goat building project, and I MEAN last." Okay, I know it's just a hay rack, but it has given me some confidence. I'm pretty sure I'll be trying my hand at some more projects in the future! :)

Garden and Chicks

Mama and her adopted brood.  There are five chicks, but one is usually under mom.. 

Still five, four under mom.  She is very careful of her chicks, and very patient even when they peck at her eyes.

The lone lettuce plant

A jungle of tomatoes and broccoli.  It's even worse now, as these photos are already a week or two old.

Jalapenos are doing well this year.  Usually I can't get them to grow very big.  But it's hot out there!  Hot enough to grow hot peppers! :)

Puny cucumber plant.  There are four of them.  I planted about 30.  Sad...and not one flower on them yet.  Hopefully they'll make up for lost time and give me a few, anyway.

Potatoes.  I think the ones on the right are Youkon Gold.  I can't think of what the others are right now.  At this moment they look even worse than in this picture.  Especially those on the left.  The foliage looks downright on deaths door.  I've never grown potatoes before, so I don't know what normal is, but to me they look bad.  And I don't think I've seen any flowers on the plants.  I thought flowers were supposed to form, and at that time there would be "new potatoes" to eat?  Please, enlighten me.

My broccoli usually doesn't grow well, as you could probably see in the above jungle pic.  The heads are so tiny, not enough to feed one person if I picked it all, and while I'm waiting for it to grow larger it flowers out and is wasted.  This plant is actually producing a lovely head that looks like what I'd expect it to.   yay!

Harvest for tonight's supper.

My garden has pretty much had to fend for itself this summer, as I'm really busy with the rest of life.  Goat care and milking takes up about two to three hours of each day right now, with 7 sets of hooves to trim, fighting parasites, cleaning up after them, taking them to pasture, hauling water, milking and caring for milk and milking equipment.
Right now, sadly, we've had to do some pretty aggressive treatment for threadworms, so all that lovely milk is going to the neighbors pigs.  Happy pigs, sad us...And I'd wanted to avoid dewormers so badly.  However, things are looking up, so in about five days we should be back in the lovely, clean, creamy white bliss again.  Hooray!

Happy Wednesday to all you lovely blog pals! :)

Catching Up

 I'm hoping to catch up on what's been happening here this summer.  I'd love to get some photos of things other than goats up soon, but first I have to find my camera so I can upload them.
We've been able to squeeze a ton of summer fun into the last two months.  The weather has been wonderfully warm for water activities, which has meant lots of tubing and swimming.  The "Big Lake" has been 70 degrees many days, so the kids and Dan have been jumping off the dock in the bay near our house.  I just watch and take the pictures :)  I'll post a few as soon as I find that camera!  Before the lake warmed up so much we had the local river to play in, and I've got some pics of that to show you as well.  We have a great spot for swimming and playing.  It's like a water park just for us!  There's a water fall that flows into a pool where the kids get right in the water fall, and there's a flat rock formation that makes a water slide into the next pool down.  The river is usually not as full as it stayed for so long this spring and early summer.  Since we have this enormous ridge running the length of our county, the rivers run fast during spring thaw and hard rains, but are nearly dry the rest of the time.  By the time I remembered to bring the camera, the water level was down, but you will still get an idea of what it's like when I'm able to post pics.
The garden this year hardly deserves an update of its own, but today I was encouraged when I went out there.  Things are actually coming along now, and it's somewhat of a jungle out there.  Much more than I'd expected with the slow start I got and the failure to germinate that so many of my seeds had.  It was quite a strange phenomena how so many of our gardens had such trouble with germination this spring.  The strangest part for me was that so many of the seeds kept "popping out" of the ground.  I'd go out and find nearly the whole row of bean seeds sitting on top of the soil.  I'd poke them all back in and one or two would stay in and sprout.  Others would pop out of the ground again.  I'd poke them in again and another one would sprout.  That happened a few times and then so more sprouted.  The same thing happened with the squash, zucchini and cucumbers.  Out of about 8 rows of carrots, maybe four carrots came up.  One lettuce plant, one radish, absolutely no dill, four cucumber plants out of about 25...VERY strange.  Perhaps some of you have found out why things were so crazy, but unfortunately I haven't had much time to read (or write) blog posts lately.  I'm hopefully going to be able to slowly catch up soon though! :)
I've also got some pics of the chicks hatching in our incubator.  Molly got 5 eggs to hatch, then put the chicks under a broody hen.  She was thrilled with them, and is an absolutely terrific mother.  It's so fun to watch  them, and a big bonus that we don't have to raise the chicks.
So, next post will be pictures of what I've posted about today, but since the only recent photos I've got on this computer are ones of the does browsing that I took with my daughters camera today, that's what I've posted.  Next post, no goats...No, I mean it!  Really! ;)
It's nice to be back.  Hopefully I'll be here more often now.

Starlight's daughter, Lil' Bet

Panzy reaching for a leaf that caught her eye

Starlight and daughters, Ginger and Lil' Bet

Catching Up

I thought I would finally try to catch you all up on what's been going on around here.  Mostly, we've been trying to finish up on our school year and taking care of goats.  We are really winding down on school, and going to finish up some of the last priorities slowly.  We really need summer vacation NOW!

I finally started planting things in the garden.  I really cheated this year and bought quite a few plants already started.  I got 8 tomato, 8 broccoli, 8 cabbage, 8 celery and 2 cayenne pepper plants.  They're all tucked in and nicely growing so far.  I did manage to plant potatoes a while back and they're growing nicely as well.  Just yesterday I finally planted the onion sets, so now I'll be anxiously waiting for them to come up.  My little girls started two pea plants and a corn plant indoors, and they've gone into the garden as well.  Very cute. :)  All in all it's been a very slow start with the garden.

My little goats have kept me very busy up to now, but I think it's getting easier.  I had each doe kid in her own little pen and let her bond with her babies there first.  When the youngest were 2 weeks old, I tried to begin separating all the babies from their dams at night and milking in the morning.  After 2 days, the twins got diarrhea.  I separated them all again, cleaned everything and waited to see what happened.  It seemed that they would have a short bout of diarrhea overnight, them be fine again for a number of days as long as I kept them on only mom's milk and grass hay.  I also gave them some goat probiotics.  Finally, after several bouts of the diarrhea, and several total pen cleanings, I started cocci treatment on the twins.  After three days of treatment (with two more days to go) I cleaned every pen with bleach water, sprinkled DE on the floors, and cleaned all feeders and the dog kennels we put in the pens for the kids to snuggle up in.  That alone took about 6 hrs. with my son's help.  I was satisfied that I'd done the best I could, and we put all the kids and moms together in the big pen with the outside run.  So far, so good!  We have now separated the kids from the dams for two nights in a row.  With the runt still with mom at night, I got a whoppin' quart of milk from all three does this morning!  That may not seem like much to you all, but I'm finally thinking this whole thing is starting to pay back.  I just had a nice cold glass of milk, and let me tell you, it was great!   I'd like to get more, but at this point I'd be satisfied with a half gallon a day.  Really, I should be able to get at least 3/4 of a gallon a day within the next couple of weeks.  I'm not ready to blame it all on the goats though, since we're all learning how to do this whole milking thing, goats and myself.  We're definitely getting better! :

The absolute hardest thing so far has been disbudding these cute little rascals.  I had to do my biggest buckling twice, and I DON'T recommend that EVER!  I don't think I'll ever be able to do that again.  He was so big by the time I knew I'd have to do it over that it was almost impossible even with hubby and eldest daughter all holding him down.  It bled a lot more then when they were small, too.  When I finally did get it all stopped and let him go, he scratched it with a hoof and started it bleeding again.  By then he wasn't letting us anywhere near his little head, so the best I could do was spray it with blue coat and let him go.  Poor guy!  However, he still loves us.  Go figure.  I guess we could all learn a whole lot from these animals! :

I'm having fun catching up on all your blog posts, but that's taking time.  I never would have imagined how much time and thought (downright head scratching thought, second guessing thought, down on my knees praying thought) these goats would take.  I'm so new at this, so I keep telling myself to give it time.  It will get easier, and I won't always be in such a conundrum about everything.  Please, all of you tell me I'm right about that! ;)

New Kid Pics

  I couldn't resist adding more goat kid pics now that the kids are growing.  They're so fun to watch now that we can't seem to get anything done!  I did plant potatoes a couple of days ago though.  I could still be outside watching the kids play while moms grazed. :)

We had an interesting Mother's Day weekend that I'll share with you next time I post (whenever I get around to that).  Actually, I've had a TON going on that I could post about (including the human baby making her appearance), but no time to do it.  Either I have a lot of time, but nothing very interesting to say, or a lot to say and no time.

I do hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day! :)

SHAMROCK (aka Sham)

SUGAR MAPLE (sale pending)

MACINTOSH (sale pending)

ASPEN

BOUNCING BET (aka Little Bet)

WILD GINGER

Shamrock

CLICK HERE to see our first kid born at North Forest Farm! It was so exciting! Japanzy really gave us no warning. I knew she was going to kid soon, because her tail ligaments were loose and she wanted to stay inside the barn. I put her in the kidding stall and let Dani, 7, stay with her while I went to the house for warm water and molasses, having already assembled my other kidding supplies. I was on my way back to the barn when Dani came out the barn door at a run, shouting, "hurry, she's having it!" Sure enough, I got to the barn just in time to see a hoof poking out, then two, then a flapping tongue. Oh, what an awesome experience! :) I still have one human birth and two goat births on the itinerary, then I can rest. Ah, sweet bed, to stay in you all night: what bliss it will be!

Homestead Diary 2-23-12 through 3-4-12

3-23-12 Did fecals on the goats (Starlight and Cupcake). Only two eggs on each slide. Still using the herbal dewormer.

3-28-12 Brought doe (rabbit) to the vet (Cherry; DX2). She appeared to have a mite problem that needed attention. Turned out that it may be mange. Not sure where she could have picked that up since she's never our of her all wire hutch hung up on the wall of the rabbit barn. Got .25cc Ivermectin SQ. I need to give her another injection on the 7th. Praying it doesn't spread.

3-3-12 Deep bedding finally reached the point of "deal with now" in the chicken and goat barns. Hauled out about 10 wheelbarrow loads. This fall, I want to wait longer to begin the deep bedding, to see if I can make it until spring is really here before having to deal with it. Last fall I began letting it build up in October, I think.

I've been working in the storage room of the barn lately. We're trying to get it cleaned out so we can build two more stalls for goats there. One will be for kidding, and the other for the future herd sires.
I've been hauling the canning jars out of there so we can store them on the new shelves in the garage. Thanks to Dan for the hard work. Now I have a place to store all the canning stuff. No more frantic searching! :) I've also been moving hay bales, trying to consolidate now that there are fewer bales. I've still got a LOT of stuff to move before Dan can start building the stalls.

That's about it for farm stuff. The rest of life continues as usual. :) Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Can't Keep Up

I can't keep up with the three blogs that I write on, so I'm sending you to another one. :) If you'd like to see some new goat pics, go HERE.
Today, I'm busy cleaning, teaching, and bringing one of our doe rabbits to the vet. I think she has some type of skin mites. Gotta run! Have a great day, all!

Counting Blessings # 227, and More Homestead Management

#227) I'm so incredibly thankful today to have married someone who is such a great father. I'm so glad he takes such an interest in his children, guiding them and teaching them. Being a mom is challenging, but it's a lot easier with a dedicated husband and father to lead us all. I don't think I knew enough when I married him at 21 to know what a gem I had. :)

I wanted to share a bit (and I know only a bit) about rotational grazing for livestock. This is a system that is critical to the holistic, natural care of cattle, sheep or goats (I only really have experience with goats), especially on small acreage.
We utilized some rotational grazing in a very simplified way last summer, and hope to use it more efficiently and effectively this grazing (or browsing, as the case may be) season.
The simple form we used last year was to stake the goats out in the yard, keeping a constant eye on them to make sure they didn't get tangled or harassed by wildlife or neighborhood dogs. The staking method we came up with involved movable twist in stakes such as you'd use for a dog run. We used a bungee cord from the stake to the actual rope, giving the goats a gentler stop in case they got scared and began to run (which they often did at first). Thicker cotton rope is the best to use because if a goat gets tangled and panics she won't cut her legs. This could happen very quickly with a cable or nylon rope, and the goat may become injured even if you're keeping close watch.

This coming spring, we plan to use cattle panels to create movable fencing, and have a lightweight shelter for each pen. This will allow the goats to spend more time grazing/browsing in their movable pasture. Without any shelter, goats especially won't feel secure in the pasture. They won't want to spend as much time there. They also need the shade and shelter from even the shortest rain showers. If it rains and goats don't have shelter, they will cry like the Wicked Witch of the West. They seem convinced they'll melt away.
The benefits of rotational grazing include healthier pastures and parasite control. The pastures are healthier because you control how much and what is eaten. The idea is to keep close watch on the condition of the grazing area. See that the animals eat all the browse/pasture down evenly, but not so far down that it causes stress to the pasture plants. First they will eat everything they love, and then they'll be forced to eat the things they don't love (but are still healthful to them). This way, the things they don't like won't take over and choke out those plants the animals like the most. When they've eaten it down sufficiently you move them to a new area.
This also helps control parasites, which are a goat raiser's most prevalent problem, especially if she wants to avoid chemical wormers. Ideally, one area of pasture should only be grazed on once a season. Of course, on 1.5 acres that's not possible. There's a solution, however, that makes it work. The grazing area shouldn't be allowed to be grazed down any lower than about 4 inches, and then the animals moved. The grazed pasture should then be left for about two weeks. The poop that has been left behind in the pasture will contain parasite eggs from the host (cow, sheep, goat). During the two weeks that it is left alone, the parasites will hatch and climb the blades of grass (They can climb about 4 inches, hence the reason you shouldn't let the grass get shorter than that while the animals are grazing on it).
After two weeks, mow the grass. Either use a mulching mower with a bag to collect the trimmings (and parasites), or mow, let it dry and rake it up. This takes care of the majority of the parasites that would have found their way back into the host who grazed on that pasture next. When the pasture has grown out again, you can safely move you animals back onto it. The pasture will be healthier for the good fertilizing it's had, and it will be safe for your animals.
That's the idea, anyway. :) I plan to attempt this system along with an herbal wormer. I will try to keep you posted as to what I learn and how it all goes. I'm just beginning to understand this myself.
I also wanted to point out that having these movable fences makes it easy to allow goats to graze down overgrown areas of your property, and maybe even the neighbors who would like to get rid of an overgrown area. Goats thrive on good quality browse. They will be sleek and shiny, have less parasite problems, and get into real nice condition very quickly on it. They love raspberry, pine, willow, tag elder, wild roses, poplar, thistles, and lots more. They're really good at staying away from things that are bad for them as long as there's plenty of good healthy browse available. They will also graze on pasture if there's no browse available. They like dandelion, trefoil, red and purple clover, lespedeza, and various grasses and lots of other things that I don't know what are. I never paid much attention to "lawn" and "grass" before, so it's been a steep learning curve to understand what little I do.
Some cautions with goats on pasture:
-Avoid putting your goats out to pasture early in the morning when the grass is wet from dew, especially if slugs and snails are a problem in your area. They climb the wet grasses and are ingested by the goats. They are host to liver flukes and lung worms which could infest your animals.
-Any changes to your goats' diet should be made slowly. If you're going to put them on pasture in the spring, or if they aren't used to it, give a feeding of hay in the A.M. first. Start with a short amount of time and build up slowly, until they can tolerate being on pasture all day. It is a good idea to continue a small hay feeding in the morning. This will help to prevent bloat from too much rich green vegetation being compacted in the rumen.
-Provide baking soda free choice so the goats can self regulate the acid level in the rumen. This is important in preventing bloat, especially in a diet high in green grasses and concentrates (grain).

goat Business

I've been busy!
First I was trying to incorporate my goat information onto this blog. Some of you may have noticed the tabs, and maybe had a look?

The tabs are gone now, and it their place I decided to create a new blog for the goats. You can find it HERE.

I had never intended to start a goat "business", but it seems that one comes up with an immediate problem when beginning to keep milk goats. In order to make milk, they must give birth. That creates little goats, anywhere from one to five per doe (thought I hope not more than three per doe).

What to do with all the little cuties? We could just eat them, and I think we will eat some of them. However, when you're breeding for milk production, it seems a waste to eat up all those potential genetics. I feel very excited about a couple of our breedings, sure that they're going to produce some really great kids. What a shame it would be for them not to go to people who could really utilize them for their true purpose.

Therefore, I hope that starting a blog featuring the goats will help people to be able to find them, and allow me to see that some of the best find good new homes where folks like us can use and appreciate them.

If you get a chance to take a peek and check out the pages, please let me know what you think. I'd like to have your input as I develop things. Thanks!
-Patty

Quick Homestead Diary Update

Hey Beautiful Blogger Women-

I managed to get some time on a friends computer (Thank you bunches and heaps!), so I'm able to do a quick update on what's going on here.

WIND sums it up pretty well. MUCH wind, and cold. The thermometer says 3 degrees, but it feels like -30 to me. Last night was crazy windy as well. In fact, I had a nightmare about a tornado. Even the cat and dog were restless all night. Why is it that if you have children who are afraid of the dark, as soon as the power goes out they wake up freaked out? Oh, yeah, the power went out too. That part was actually pretty fun for me. :) I like it dark.

The goats are back! :) I'm loving having them back, and wondering if all of them were bred. I dropped them off to be bred on December 1, and Cupcake was in standing heat the day before. Starlight and Japanzy were supposed to be in heat about a week into their time with the bucks. I picked them all up on the 23rd, and found that Cupcake was at the end of her heat. Maybe I should have left them longer, but I hope the 23 days were enough, because I couldn't bear to have them gone longer. That really makes me sound like a crazy goat lady, but I can't help it. It's the real truth. I like my goats. A lot. ;)

They're doing great since coming home, even Starlight seems to be feeling better than she did before and during her stint with the buck. I'm thinking it's going to be a long 4+ months of waiting to see those kids.

The chickens are really picking up in their egg production. They're happy and friendly, crowding around me when I come in to care for them in the morning. Even when they have water that isn't frozen, they all crowd around to peck snow off of my boots. not sure why that is, but they seem to love it. Yesterday we got 10 eggs (out of 16 hens). Not bad for the end of December. I can now sell some eggs, which seriously helps when they're eating so much feed. In fact, I need to put scratch and laying mash on my list. They're going through it pretty fast now.

Well, it's late and I have to force myself outside to drive 20 miles to get home. It's way too cold and windy to be driving. I wasn't prepared for the weather to take this turn. It was 11 degrees, still and sunny when I headed for town this afternoon. Can't wait to curl up in my bed and put my cold feet on my hubby. :)

Hugs!
Patty

New Experiences

Our family has been having some new experiences lately! One of them is sort of controvercial, but it has been interesting, and is really what we're up to, so on the blog it goes.
We have some good family friends who are trappers. Their children are mostly grown now, and moving on to their adult lives. I think Mr. Trapper misses having young children to teach and pass on his experiences and knowledge to. He took an interest in teaching our children some of his skills, and before we knew it the children were involved it running a muskrat trap line with him.
This has meant that we as their parents have gotten involved as well. Yesterday I got to be the chaperone as my young ones checked and reset traps. It was really very interesting how it all works. I wish I had pictures, but we forgot the camera, and the computer troubles we're having are making our internet connection operate so slowly I feel like we have dial-up again. Ugh!
Muscrats live in little houses much like beaver lodges, but smaller and made out of balled up grasses that they wet and stick together, some small sticks and mud. The bigger the house, the more rats live in it. To set the traps, the trapper makes a hole in the top. The tunnel from under water into the house is found, and the trap is placed in the doorway. It is connected to a wire that anchors it outside the house.
When the trap is in place, grasses are dampened and placed over the hole, and then covered with snow to keep the water inside from freezing. To check the traps, the snow and grass are removed from the hole (this can take a while as it is frozen in place), the trap is pulled up and checked, and reset.
In the past few days, Mr. Trapper and the children have gotten two muskrats. If a person is interested in working with the fur (as my children are), it takes one pelt sold to get the money to have one pelt tanned to keep. One of my children has a muskrat hat made by Mr. Trapper and one of his daughter trappers. It looks much like beaver, and is lovely, soft and warm.
I had fun taking my children out to check the traps. I was reminded of a book I'd read once about a woman who lived in the Alaskan wilderness with her trapper husband. She had a baby out there, and they passed a winter out there alone. They couldn't find any game and very nearly starved before they were able to get out. By the time they got help they were quite ill with scurvy.
For one afternoon, I felt like a strong, brave pioneer trapper in the wilderness. It was pretty exciting, I must say. :)

In other news, as we approached the shortest day of the year, the chickens have picked up in their egg laying. This seems to happen often for us, and I love it. Just when we expect to go eggless for months, having a lovely surprise of five eggs in the nest boxes is so nice, and the morning afer the solstice, too!

I'm planning to pick up my does from the breeder on Friday afternoon, and I can't wait! I'm so excited to have them back home, and even more so by some extenuating circumstances that I don't feel right about sharing here. Suffice it to say, I'm a bit extra concerned about their wellfare right now, as well as that of the dear woman caring for them who has recently become a real friend.
I have stopped in to see them a couple of times, and they look pretty good, except for Starlight. She's never been what I'd call thrifty, and now is no exception to that. She has some upper respitory stuff going on that is worrying me. I really want her back so I can give her some extra TLC. I'm really unsure how things are going to develop for her, and only hope that she makes it through pregnancy and kidding without too much dificulty.
By the way, that extra TLC is going to be hard to give, as my girls are STINKY! I don't know how the buck stink will ever wear off. I pray that I get two nice bucklings, one by each of the two bucks involved in these breedings. If I do, then I will be able to have a closed herd after this for a long time, and no more pen breedings. That's my ultimate goal now. I used to think this traveling and pen breeding would be a yearly occurence, but I've now come to ralize that it causes a lot of stress to myself and my does. I don't want to have to do this agian.

I want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and New year, as I may not be back for a while. I just can't take the time to post or read blogs with my PC and laptop both acting up so badly. I really miss reading all of your posts, and can't wait to catch up a bit. :)

Many blessing to you all in the New Year!
-Patty

I'm Back!

Hey all, I'm back online. :) I grounded myself in order to prepare for a trip, and then take that trip and visit with my sister and her family. We had an absolute blast playing together for five days, and now it's time to clean up the mess we brought home with us. I'm rested up and ready to dive in, but had to take care of a little business first.
I've recently began the process of getting all set up to get my goats registered in my name, with a herd name. Of course I'd wanted to get something that had Tanglewoods in it. Apparently that's pretty popular, because no variation I could think of was available to me. We had to choose a new name for the "herd". My eldest daughter came up with North Forest Farm, and that passed. So, our new homestead name/herd name is North Forest Farm. My husband and eldest daughter are happy. They never thought Tanglewoods Homestead "fit" anyway. So, here we are with 1.5 acres we're now calling a farm. :) I can't wait to see what else this homestead adventure brings.
I also can't wait to slowly catch up on all of your blog posts as soon as I get a chunk of time to myself. I sure hope you've all had a lovely week.
Hugs!

P.S. Next post, I'll introduce you to the little additions to our laying flock, including the tiniest little roo I think I've ever seen.

Goat Meet and Greet

Yesterday's goat meet and greet went quite well. Actually, the most hectic part for me happened before we even left home. The breeder decided that it would be best if I gave a course of antibiotics to my does so we didn't end up spreading "shipping fever" between our animals. Shipping fever is sort of a generic term for something that commonly happens when goats are transported to new places. They can get stressed and then their immune systems get depressed. If that happens, then any germs hanging around can quickly cause an illness.
So, I gave them each a shot of penicillin and gathered up supplies to send with them. Then I gave them some hay so they could eat for a while while I got kennels loaded up.
It turns out they've all grown since I got them. I started by trying to cram Cupcake into a kennel she used to fit in. She said, "NO!", and that was that. So, we decided that Panzy could just ride in the van like a family pet, and prayed she wouldn't pee. All good, no accidents.
The meeting went fairly well, with no major trouble between any of the does. However, I don't know when any of them will get a chance to eat or drink, with the bucks hot on their heels all the time.
A am still a bit nervous...God bless them, please.

The following is the only picture I took. This is Panzy and Maxwell. The others were inside the barn, and it was pretty dark in there, so no pics.




I'm grounding myself from my computer for a while now, so I'll see you when my grounding is over (probably by Friday). Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Homestead Diary, November 10 - 13

11/10/11 - Recd. herbal wormer in mail today and began using it. I first tried easy and sprinkled it on their food. No go, of course.

11/11/11 - New tactic with herbal wormer. I mixed it with water and sucked it up into a syringe, and drenched them. Messy but effective, though Japanzy (my problem child) is still pouting and glaring.

Sam found the first batch of chicken eggs from our new girls in a window well this morning. Wahoo! There were four. Going to look for some wooden eggs for the nest boxes while running errands. Thinking about just locking the girls in the coop until they begin using the boxes, but that will make for a very lonely little renegade hen. We have one out of three Silver Spangled Hamburgs left, but like the others she refuses to go into the coop at night. She will, however, sneak in during the day to eat and drink.

11/12/11 - 3rd try at finding a dosage method for the wormer. Mixed powdered herbs with a bit of rolled oats and added molasses until I had "crumbles". They ate it all up. Nice, pleasant experience that I will be repeating tomorrow. Ordered new microscope for us to use. Can't wait to let the kids look at some stuff, and will be using it to do fecals next weekend if it comes in time. Perfect science experiment for the kids.
Couldn't find wooden eggs (or any other) in town, so purchased some air dry modeling compound and made eggs from that. When dry will put in nest boxes. Still getting eggs in the window well. :)

11/13/11 - got the rest of the hay last night. 15 more bales of timothy/orchard mix. It's beautiful, and I feel spoiled by it. I'm sure the goats will agree wholeheartedly if they ever have to eat anything else again.
Fed the final dose of wormer today. I wish that I'd taken the time to do or get done fecals first, because I've realized that I won't have a real way to see if it has done anything. However, since I'm hoping to have them in good shape as they head off to be bred (they'll be away for the month of December having a long date with a couple of handsome bucks), I felt it was best to try it now.
The wormer seems to have given Cupcake clumpy poop, so I'm watching to see if that goes away. We've never had that before and it showed up after the second dose. However, the other girls are fine.
It's been such a gorgeous day today that I had to find reasons to stay outside. Got the hay stacked in the barn, cleaned the goat room, swept up straw and hay off of the floor and put it in the chicken coop, let the kids cuddle the newest bunnies who opened their eyes within the last 24 hrs., hunted for hiding places for eggs but didn't find any.

Goat Saga Continues

Last night I gave the girls about 1/4 c. minerals, and decided to mix in 3t. DE for parasite control. Little Cupcake (lowest in the herd and usually pushed around by all)edged everyone else out and ate pretty much all of that in 10 mn. What is up?? I thought maybe selenium deficient, so gave about 1/4 c. sunflower seeds to each. Someone said maybe zinc, since they were on the alfalfa and that has a lot of calcium which may have interfered with the zinc absorption.

I added more DE to the feeder, sans minerals, and it was gone this A.M.

For now, I will give each their minerals w/ sunflower seeds on the milk stand in the evening.

The more I learn the less I know...

Also running very low on minerals. Will have to find a way to get more.