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| The boys, Aspen and Shamrock |
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| Swimmin' in the river |
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| dock jumping |
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| Dock jumping ninja |
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Summer Fun Pics
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
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.
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.
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| Starlight's daughter, Lil' Bet |
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| Panzy reaching for a leaf that caught her eye |
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| Starlight and daughters, Ginger and Lil' Bet |
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
My Daughter's Blog
I'd like to invite you all to stop by my daughter's new blog. She's one super creative and talented girl, and I'm sure you'll enjoy your visit! :)
Thursday, June 7, 2012
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! ;)
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! ;)
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