Goat Lesson

We bought goats a while ago.

Beautiful Nubian goats.

They came with ear tags.

Quite often a person will put ear tags into their herd to identify individuals.  It makes it easier to remember things like who their mom was, what year they were born, and what their name is.  The tags are big.

We took ours out when they came.  We had one come that had her tag stuck in improperly so it was always bleeding because it would get caught on things.  (fencing, trees, other goats, etc)

So their ears look like this:

See the small black dot on her ear?  That is where we took out her tag.  It is just like piercing your ear, and it leaves a similar hole in theirs.

BUT,

Our poor little girl, she is just under a year, got her ear caught on something (Fencing we think) and pulled her hole right out:

Yes, that poor ear got ripped right in half!

We put iodine on it and lots of vitamin E so it is healing up pretty good, but it is so sad that she got it ripped.  We were out there just after it happened so I am sad I didn't go out just a little sooner.  

You get attached to your animals when they are as personable as these ones are.  It makes me sad that she has such pain in her ear.  Especially because goats assert their dominance by biting another goats ear!  I can only imagine how low on the pole she will be because of this.

So, lesson learned.  

This is why you never tag your goats ears.  It is not necessary.  I know their names.  I know their mom's and I know what year they were born.  I have it all recorded in a book.  I don't need the tags (as I already decided before this happened) and I wish I could have saved my poor little Jug all this pain.  

The things you learn on the farm!

Cheers

City Girl Gets Excited

So I had a strange conversation with myself the other day...

Suffice it to say, I have discovered that I am still a city girl, playing at the farm girl role.  I really like playing though, so you get to hear about my adventures this week!

My Muscovy duck hatched out some babies last night!

She was really unimpressed that this city girl kept looking in on her though and attacked me a couple times.

Her babies are adorable (as most ducklings are!) but her beak is super sharp!  This was the best photo I could get so far as she kept biting me and my phone as I tried to at least snap something I could text to my peeps.

I learned that DH is so much more patient than I am.

He kept at the bottle feeding thing with our poor baby goat long after I gave up.

Turns out that the shots the vet had me giving her (yes, I actually was not only giving my goats shots...I was doing it myself!!  Yay city girl!) were actually making her worse.  So, we stopped them and she blossomed!

She is a beautiful little goat now.  Getting along as if she never were struggling at all.

Her and her brother are playing, jumping, running like little maniacs.  It is a wonderful sight to see!  I love it.

We went to a friend's house the other day to dig some trees (she often asks us to come dig suckers and whatnot.  It is awesome!) and she had bought a new peach tree.

I am waiting to see if she can make it grow because if it does...Jaime's gonna get one!  It looks awesome.  If you are in a cold climate (zone 4 or so) check it out here, you might want to invest in one too.

Also, when I went out to collect eggs from our very old chickens (they are almost 4 years old) I found this:

Yup, you see that right.  It is a super tiny egg.  About the size of a large marble actually.

Old hens don't lay stuff like that!

I went out to chat with them and they didn't lay anymore though.

We cracked it open.  I was sure it would be all white, or maybe empty, but it was complete with a tiny yolk and white.  It was pretty fun to see.  Much like this video only in reverse...quite a bit! (and another...appears his hen didn't listen when he told her to stop! :D)

Hope your week is awesome and full of adventure!
Cheers

Well Lookie Here...

...see what happened in my barn on Tuesday...

My sweet little Ali had two little babies!!

This is Pete, he was the first out and almost double the size of his sister!  He is a stinker and quite playful.  We will keep him for a year or so, and breed him to our others and our neighbours goats.  Then sell him before he becomes stinky as a "proven" buck.

This is Reet.  (short for a couple things, but most of all Rita)  She was born missing part of her cerebellum   The vet said that she was retarded (his words) and would never recover but be able to do the things that goats need to do.  He gave us shots for vitamins and penicillin (she may be aspirating slightly into her lungs) to give her.  So far most of her symptoms have vanished!  I hope it was something like oxygen deprivation coming out or something not the missing cerebellum. She is a beautiful little doe and I would love to keep her to breed if her problems do not pass on to kids.

 Ali did really good and is such a good mom (after having her kids taken away for a night) and is doing so good.  She was a pro.  Which is good because I couldn't help her and all my help was somewhere else!

I will be getting better pics later, but for now, this is the best that my Ali would let me get.  :)  I am sure you will all get tired of me posting about my goats, but they are so much fun for me!

Cheers

Brain Dump

I wanted to add "Of Epic Proportions", but thought that might be getting a little dramatic!

1. Got a phone call on Tuesday morning from my friend.  She is the cub leader here and was kind of in a bind.  We had some snow fall (crazy stuff I tell you) and they couldn't do the spring hike that she had planned.  She knew I could do something to do with the Gardening badge and asked if I could be a guest teacher that afternoon.

Sure thing!

That is right up my alley.

I told her that I had a few ideas and thought I could keep the boys busy for the time she needed.  They showed up and this is what we did:

We transplanted some of my melons for them to each take one home (I had some lovely little Sugar Baby Watermelon, Delice de la Table, and Charantas Melons all planted up for my garden and figured I could share)

We also made some seed bombs out of some wildflower seeds I had and a veggie mix I dug up.

I had a bunch of paper shredded for my compost and we soaked it for a couple hours.

I used my stick blender and it turned into some beautiful pulp that we used in our bombs.

I told the boys that we were using my chick bucket and I didn't wash it first.  I told them that they were super lucky because there was chick poop in the paper pulp!

It was a blast watching their faces as they realized that they were touching chick poop!  Some got a kick out of it, but some were rather disgusted.

I was amused...

...is that so wrong?!

2. I got to meet a long time reader/friend today for lunch.  It was exciting for me to put a face to the name and to have a chance to chat in real life.

It really makes it so much fun for me to meet some of you.  I feel like we become such good friends.  What a wonderful experience!

3.  As I was driving home I hit a pretty massive system of snow that blew through here. (these are photos of it not being done yet...there has been a couple more cm of snow and it is supposed to keep coming till midnight!  Crazy I tell you!)

I drove so slow and prayed so hard I would make it home safely.

Heavenly Father truly does know us and know our needs because right after my prayer, I hit a huge line of people going REALLY slow.  It was so big we really couldn't pass the person in front.

He was going slow enough that I could safely drive and know that I would make it home in one piece.

The snow is beautiful, but really, it is time for spring to be warm...no more snow please!

4.  A few days ago we did some transplanting of trees for the goat lady.  You know, the lady who sold us our goats!  (flattering name right?!)  

She was worried that it was too much work, so I told her we would do it in trade...so I have a new goat!!

Her name is Jug, her name kills me!  She will be my little milk jug next year so I think it is so fitting!  

She is just a little one right now and is super fun to play with.  Her fur is so soft and warm.  I think I am beginning to become a little addicted to my goats.  They have these little personalities and voices and I pretty much adore them to pieces!

5.  On the 2nd, we also got two new little foster kids.  They have been giving me a run for my money and try my patience at every turn.  They are adorable though.  I am slowly trying to ease them into our family routine and someday it might work.  I am mentally exhausted each and every day so far and am really hoping for a little bit of give someday.  :)  

This is our first placement though so I really do see it as a learning curve.  We have only done respite so far so this is a definite learning experience for us.

6.  Next week I have chicks hatching!  I am so excited!

My chicks in my basement will move outside soon (I hope by the weekend) and it will be just in time for some new little babies to be born.  

I hope.  

We are keeping track to see how many eggs (hopefully lots of them) hatch and how fertile our roo is.  Cross your fingers for me!  

It would be an excellent birthday present for me!  (oh ya, that happens soon for me too...I am getting older each year!)

Cheers

My New Babies

So, remember how I told you we were getting goats?

Meet Rosy, she is our milk goat.  She gives us just about a liter a milking (close to a quart for you Americans!).  She is getting used to her new home so her milk production dropped a bit, but we are slowly growing on her so she is giving us a little more milk each day!  

She is super sweet and loves to have her neck scratched.  She thinks I am her mom and follows me around rubbing up against me for love each time I stop.

This is Ali.  She is pregnant and due to kid around May 17th.  The lady we got our goats from thinks she has twins in there, so we are hoping for two nannies!

I call Ali "Greedy Pig".  She will eat anything that I give her, and eat A LOT of it!  She is crazy curious and is a holy crap escape artist.  Where Rosy is content to be where we tell her to be, Ali will test the boundaries and try to push them to the limit.  She is adorable and I love how naughty she is.  For some reason that makes her more enduring to me.

We took our neighbours to meet the "goat lady" as we call our goat source, and while there the goat lady showed us her new chicks.  She was telling me that she didn't like the Cochin's and was probably going to get rid of them.  She didn't like how the feathers were all over their legs.

I told her I loved the way a Cochin had feathers all the way down and was actually looking for a place to buy them!  So...I inherited 9 little baby chicks!

We were pretty much set up because of this:

Yup, that is right, it is an incubator!

I picked it up a couple weeks ago and was saving eggs for a while.  It takes 41 eggs to fill it, and so between the neighbour and I we filled that baby and turned it on!

My chicks are due on the 20th of April.  One day before my birthday.  I think that makes a pretty darn nice birthday present, don't you?!

We marked each of our eggs, my neighbour has an "X" on each of her eggs so we can tell if both of our roosters are doing their jobs.  If you remember, I actually got the chickens from a friend.  We split his flock in two and each got a roo.  We want to know if our 3 year old roo's are doing their job fertilization wise so this was an easy way to check it out.

I had all the stuff ready for the new little chicks and so we were quite happy to take the Cochin's and test out our ability to raise them till we can put them outside.

By the way, chicks REEK!  They are about the stinkiest thing ever.

I totally understand why you would love it if your chickens go broody.  I am hoping that next year we have a couple that want to raise their babies so I don't have to!

Cheers