Giveaway Update and Homestead Diary Update

10/28/11 Trimmed Starlight and Japanzy's hooves. Need to do Cupcake's before long. Also need to make fecal float solution and do fecals on all.
Chickens turn 20 weeks today.
Bunnies due this weekend.

10/29/11 Things to do, questions to research:
- when to vaccinate, what do do when in prep for breeding and kidding
- find goat minerals
- mulch over gardens

10/30/11 Some answers to questions yesterday:
Before breeding; Do fecals, worming if necessary, and recheck fecals
Pre-natal; CD/T vaccination, Check into whether or not BoSe is necessary for our area. Some say to deworm within 48 hrs. of delivery and at 10 days deworm kids too? I need to research more and decide how I want to handle parasite management before I have to make that decision. CD/T kids at 4, 8 and 12 weeks.

To do: Get new raised bed space tilled, black dirt and compost added, and mulched. Finish mulching big garden. Research need for copper (COWP?) in our area. Make a list of kidding supplies to begin assembling. So far, I have;
-clean towels
-7% iodine
-Dixie cups (navel dipping)
-long surgical gloves (that hopefully will remain unopened)
-OB lube
-baby bottle
-baby ear/nose syringe
-propylene glycol
-penicillin, needles, syringes
-electrolyte solution
-tube feeding syringes
-heating pad/heat lamp
-short, shallow pail for watering after birth
-trash bags
-lactated ringers

Other ideas, anyone?

11/2/11 Goats still eating minerals more than I think they should. Decided to feed concentrates with 25 ppm copper with the BOSS and see how it goes.

11/5/11 Situation seems to be stabilizing with the goats. They are now eating the BOSS and chow and leaving the minerals behind, so I think that whatever got out of whack is back to normal. Here's hoping!

Forgot to note bunnies born on November 1st. Only two this batch, but fall breeding can be tricky with rabbits unless you have a light source to give more hours of daylight. I feel these rabbit mamas deserve a break over the winter any way, though some say it makes them fat and harder to breed. Waiting to see if the other doe kindles. She's due right now, if the breeding took. She acts as though she's thinking about making a nest, so perhaps.

GIVEAWAY!!!!!!
Okay, are ya still with me? :) The fun, not so boring, part is here! I finally received the give away item for my 200th blog post. I'm really happy with mine (I got two, one for the lucky winner, and one for me).

Here's a clue: It's very "homesteady", and perfect for a cozy fireside evening this winter. One more? It was created by a fellow blogger whom I follow.

Only three more posts until I tell you what it is! :)