Goats in the Garden

Guilty - Farm Photo of the Week

2011-10-18T12:57:00.008-05:00

There was a mystery in the goat pen this morning. When I walked through the gate to feed the goats I about fell into a new, giant hole right smack dab in the middle of the goat pen. Is a sink hole developing? Did Kansas have an earthquake last night I did not know about? Was someone trying to hide a body in the goat pen? This hole was certainly big enough to hide a body in. I just don't know. I asked Bear if he knew who dug the crater in the middle of the goat pen. He just looked up at me with his soft, brown eyes and an innocent look as if to say "I have no idea how that got there!" Hmmm....well he certainly looks innocent of any hole digging doesn't he?

What was happening a year ago - Goats Steal Landscaping Jobs

Our New Livestock Guardian Pup!

2011-10-17T14:29:00.006-05:00

Say hello to our new livestock guardian pup! This video was taken less than a week after we got him. His previous owner said his name was Bandit and usually I like to keep an animal's name that they are used too. The problem is we already have a perfectly frustrating escape artist in a goat coat that is named Bandit so that might make things a bit confusing here on the farm. The new pup is only four months old according to his previous owner so I think he will adjust to a new name fairly easily. I have been calling him Bear, and that sort of sounds like Bandit. I am not sure it really matters as my husband keeps calling him "Puppy" and he comes to that faster than either Bandit or Bear. I have encouraged my husband to use his proper name so as not to confuse this sweet new member of our Farm family!

I have been looking for a new male Great Pyrenees for the last year or so. Our old guardian Dreyfus died a couple years ago and left an empty spot on our farm and in my heart. Of course nobody could ever replace Dreyfus, he was such a special dog and I am not sure anybody could ever fill those big paws of his but Bear is doing a good job so far.

PS. Yes, I totally hate my voice in this video! My husband says I sound drunk. I assure you I wasn't drunk, no field sobriety test in the goat pen needed, (like anybody could ever really walk a straight line in a pen full of goats anyway, come on!)I just talk slow. It is the Kansas accent maybe. Just pay attention to the cute puppy!

Help Find A Missing Goat in Oklahoma!

2011-09-19T12:05:00.006-05:00

This is Journey, she is a LaMancha dairy goat. Isn't she just beautiful? Sadly, her owner Carol is desperately trying to find her and I am hoping that by posting this on my blog and trying to get the word out in other ways that it will somehow help Journey to be found and returned to her worried owner.

Journey has a tattoo on the underside of her tail which reads, YJ/Y10. Carol was traveling home from the Texas Dairy Goat Show in Wichita Falls when Journey vanished. She was in the trailer when they stopped in Sherman and had vanished when they arrived in Checotah, Oklahoma. The only other stop was for fuel in Kiowa, Oklahoma and they did not open the trailer at that time. Though evidence of Journey near the convenience store in Kiowa, Oklahoma was later found. Carol is headed back to Kiowa today to resume the search for Journey.

Please help to find Journey by getting the word out about her. Reposting about her on your Facebook pages or different goat groups you belong too can only help. If you are at a goat sale in Oklahoma be on the lookout for this beautiful LaMancha. If you hear about a goat running loose in Oklahoma or see someone selling a dairy goat that could be her on Craigslist let Carol know!

If you have any information about Journey at all you can reach her owner Carol at 918-470-2592 and there are more pictures of Journey on the "does" page of Carol's website at www.goatsinme.com.

Photo courtesy of Carol Stafford.

Goat Races

2011-09-15T12:33:00.003-05:00

A day at the err.. goat races? I just love the little stuffed jockeys on their backs. hehe

Festive Bean Salad

2011-08-09T12:46:00.008-05:00

Fresh and colorful, this healthy side dish goes well with Mexican food or just about any dish.

1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
3/4 cup red onion, diced
1 can whole corn, (15 oz) drained
1 can lime & cilantro Rotel diced tomatoes, drained
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 can black Beans, (15 oz) drained
1 can kidney beans, (15 oz) drained
Salt and Pepper

In a large bowl, combine peppers, onion, corn, Rotel tomatoes and garlic. Add olive oil, vinegar, and lightly salt and pepper to taste. Add black beans and kidney beans and toss well. Makes about 9 - 1 cup servings. Refrigerate leftovers.

Optional: 1/2 of a jalapeno, finely chopped can be added for more kick.

Satan Called....He Wants His Weather Back.

2011-08-02T15:49:00.006-05:00

Kansas is starting to feel like a desert. Normally I like summer, but this heat has been oppressive to say the least. The dry heat hits you in the face like walking into an oven and the brown grass crunches under your feet. I swore after the winter we had I was not going to complain about the heat in the summer but come on! Week after week of 100+ temps and I finally just had to give in and say something! I look at the drought maps on the weather website and see how this drought is spreading up from Texas like a cancer. It is 111 degrees today, I am doing all I can for the animals but still I worry about them. We need a break and we need rain, after our hay is put up I think I am going to Google rain dances....yes things are just about THAT bad.

Vegetable Garden Could Get Woman 93 Days in Jail

2011-07-11T15:07:00.003-05:00

I can't help but think after watching this video that we live in a time where too many people are too worried about controlling every little harmless thing that everyone else does. This woman's garden is neat, clean, attractive and well maintained. What is the problem? I say prosecuting this case is a complete waste of taxpayer's money and the good people of Oak Park should keep that in mind when elections and time to vote for city officials comes around again.

Grub Eating Garden Helper

2011-06-13T13:45:00.008-05:00

Wow, I did not realize it had been so long since I wrote anything on this blog. Time sure does seem to fly by when the weather warms up and you are busy writing new items down on the old "to do" list faster than you can check them off. We put in two gardens this year and that is one of the things that has kept both my husband and I busy lately. Luckily we did have some help from Cinnamon the chicken. When we first tilled up the old garden spot awhile back we found lots of grub worms just waiting for some new garden plants to unleash their evil grub worm destruction on. We do all agree grub worms are evil right?
What is one answer to grub worms when breaking soil before planting? A hungry chicken! Cinnamon went right to work eliminating every wicked grub worm her keen eye could find, she was ruthless. Cinnamon proved she was no dumb bird by following behind the tiller where the most grub worms could be found.

Then she went to work on the rest of the garden spot, scratching and pecking. No grub that dared peek it's ugly worm head out of the soil had a chance with Cinnamon the chicken on the job! When her hard work of grub worm control was over she took a well deserved dust bath and laid an egg in the horse trailer. Thanks for the help Cinnamon...and the egg!

Prayers for Joplin, Mo.

2011-05-23T15:28:00.008-05:00

Joplin, Missouri was hit with a devastating tornado yesterday which has resulted in terrible damage and many lives lost. The people of Joplin are certainly in my thoughts and prayers today and I hope they will be in yours as well. Joplin is only about an hour's drive from our farm and I have been there many times. I don't even recognize it now in the terrible pictures and videos of the town that have been posted since yesterday.

I don't believe the people of Joplin had much notice of this tornado at all. It is very scary and my heart goes out to every person that has been affected by this terrible disaster.

If you would like to help you can donate to the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army. There has also been a Facebook page set up at http://www.facebook.com/helpjoplin and a website at http://www.helpjoplin.com/. Blood donations, especially Negative O blood are also needed. The helpjoplin website says to go to the Springfield donor centers to donate blood.

And the Winner Is...

2011-05-12T01:31:00.000-05:00

There was supposed to be a video of my husband picking the winner here but after he picked the winner's name out of a bowl and I tried to load the video on to my computer it would not play. I could not figure out what the problem was. So sorry about that but the name he drew out of the bowl was Lydia! So congratulations Lydia, you are the winner of the two bars of goat's milk soap!

I want to thank every person that took the time to suggest names for the baby goat! We went over the list of all the names suggested and it was hard to pick one out of so many great names. (many of which I am sure we will use for other goat's names in the future!) In the end I decided to use Flartus's suggestion of "Zoe" and add a Y. I have been calling her "baby" (what all unnamed baby goats get called here) and she comes running for her bottle now when she hears it so I thought "Zoey" sounds a lot like "baby" so she should still come running when she hears it. The name also seems to fit her very well.

I also want to apologize for being a couple days late announcing the winner! Things have been so hectic with new baby goats and trying to get the garden going with some pretty strange weather this year.

There had been lots going on here on the farm with new baby goats, the garden and getting ready for the farmer's market not to mention remodeling the kitchen and dining room. More on all of that later! Thank you all!

New Goat Baby and a Soap Giveaway!

2011-04-18T13:42:00.019-05:00

This is a video I took last week of one of the newest goat babies born on the farm. She was the smallest of triplets and was only a tiny 4 lbs at birth. I just weighed her today and she is now up to 11.5 lbs and growing. These are her mom's first kids and even though "Red" is proving to be a good mother she only has two teats, (some Boer goats have more than two.) That doesn't always work out the best with three pushy kids, especially when two are much bigger than the third. This little girl's two big brothers tend to push her away from her share of mom's milk.

My original plan was to pull one of the bucklings as a bottle baby and leave this doeling and the other brother on their mom. Goats don't always like to cooperate with our plans. The little doeling took right to a bottle easy as pie, but her two brothers wanted NOTHING to do with that bottle. They are two of the most stubborn kids I have ever worked with and it didn't make a lot of sense to keep messing with them when the doeling was more than willing to take a bottle right off the bat, no fuss. So for now I have left all three kids with their mother and am supplementing the doeling with a bottle 4 times a day as well. This seems to be working out very well as all are growing and seem to be doing just fine.

She is a 50% Boer doeling with spots. She is not nearly as wildly dappled as her two brothers (you can see them in the background at the very beginning of the video) but she is very sweet. Maybe in a couple years we will be able to get some nice percentage Boer kids out of her and our spotted Boer buck Frost.

Now I just need to think of a name for her! That is much easier said than done considering I am pretty much terrible at thinking of good names for the animals. I would appreciate some help with this. In fact I would so much appreciate some help with naming this new baby goat that I am going to give two bars of goat milk soap to one lucky person that offers a name suggestion for this new little addition to Shiloh Prairie Farm! My non-biased husband will draw the winner's name randomly from the names of every person that offers any name suggestion in the comments below.

Important Info about the giveaway.

1. The giveaway will be open from the time this is posted to May 9, 2011 at midnight. So you have plenty of time to think of some great names! The winner's name will be posted on this blog after May 9th, 2011.

2. The winner will be drawn randomly from entries in the comments below. To be eligible you must leave a comment below and submit a possible name for the goat baby in the video above in your first comment. (Don't worry if you can't think of any great names, the drawing is random from all entries. So you could submit "Mud" as your name suggestion and still be entered in the giveaway but remember that my husband and his quirky sense of humor does have half the vote in the name we choose...do you really want this baby goat to go through the rest of her life with "Mud" as a name??)

3. Get an extra entry by writing about this giveaway on your blog, Facebook, or twitter with a link to the giveaway. (one entry for each). Just leave a separate comment below with the link to your post for each extra entry.

Prize will be two bars of homemade goat milk soap made by me and sent to the winner.

Thank you and good luck!

New Kids on the Farm

2011-03-25T02:15:00.006-05:00

"Japan" (named Japan when she was born because the marking on her side sort of looks like Japan's flag. She was named before that country's recent tragic troubles) is a 75% Boer / 25% Nubian doe and she just had two new kids a little bit ago, both girls! One black and one light red one. These two new girls might be keepers, time will tell. These are Japan's first kids.

Suspicious - Farm Photo of the Week

2011-03-09T11:11:00.004-06:00

Yea, the other goats wanted me to ask what you are doing? And why did you not bring treats??

Eggscellent Eggs

2011-03-07T13:02:00.015-06:00

"Cinnamon" the chicken must be eggshausted these days. She has laid an egg every day but two since she suddenly started laying the last week of January. So far we have got 36 eggs and I find that to be eggstraordinary considering they are all from one single chicken. She has only missed two days since she started but she even made up for those days by giving us two eggs the day after one missed day and a large double yoked egg after the other.

We named her Cinnamon because according to the people we got her from she is a Cinnamon Queen chicken. She is our first chicken so we don't have a lot of experience with them yet but I would definitely say if you want lots of eggstra eggs this would be one of the good breeds to get. We were not even sure if she was going to lay eggs since we didn't know how old of a girl she is. You can read my other post about when we first got Cinnamon by clicking "here."

She is really an eggsceptionally calm and friendly chicken and will even take food from our hands. So what is on the chicken menu today? Let's see, there is always chicken food from the feed store available but we have also been giving her some other treats. Today it looks like a tomato, some salad mix, a handful of multi-grain cheerios and a piece of whole wheat bread (I only give her bread every 3rd day or so and not too much.) Oh and her yogurt, I can't forget that because it is her favorite, she loves the stuff.

All her veggie treats are under the bread and cheerios but she goes straight for the yogurt first.

I am a little concerned about her because she has had a persistent "messy" bottom, though she seems healthy otherwise. She has a good appetite, is active and laying eggs every day. No rattles to her breathing or discharge of any kind. I read on the backyard chickens forum to try giving her some plain yogurt for this but so far even though she loves it and eats a couple spoonfuls almost every day it hasn't helped the messy bottom situation. I read it could be mites and all chickens are very prone to them so I bought some powder for that. We have washed off her backside twice with warm water when it got more messy and smelly (add "washing a chicken's butt" to my list of things I never thought I would do before country life!)

She is really a wonderful chicken and we like her so much and are very happy to have her around. I never knew chickens could be so personable. We would like to figure out what we need to do to help her with that little back end issue. So we could use some help from all you experienced chicken owners if you have any suggestions or know what might be causing this, any advice would be very much appreciated. I try to avoid using antibiotics if at all possible but could it be time to try something like that or is this not that abnormal for certain individual chickens? Her eggs are always very clean.

Goat council bill gored in House says CJOnline.com

2011-02-23T15:52:00.005-06:00

Not long ago I wrote on this blog about bill HB2099 which was for the creation of the "Kansas Goat Council" and a new check off fee for every goat sold in Kansas. You can read about it by clicking HERE. I am relieved to report that as the bill was written it does not look like it is going anywhere. I wrote KS Representatives and got the following email statement back from Rep. Jerry Williams.

“Jennifer:: The hearing was held on H B 2099 today in AG Committee. One for the Bill and several NOT for the Bill. I can NOT see this Bill going anywhere. My feedback has been NO to H B 2099 and I agree with the NO group. Rep. Jerry Williams “

Quite a few goat breeders braved some very bad weather that day to go to the committee meeting and have their say about this baaaaaad bill. According to several of them there was only one individual that testified in favor of the new bill and that was the district representative of Jerry Miller, Mr. Seward. Mr. Miller, who is the Kansas Meat Goat Association President was not able to attend the meeting but apparently submitted amendments, the details of which I do not know. Several Kansas goat breeders, both of meat and dairy goats testified against the bill, all making some very valid and good points.

They must have made quite an impression as the following article (link below) was written about the meeting over HB2099 and this writer did a very good job of highlighting just how strong the opposition to this bill was.

Goat council bill gored in House | CJOnline.com

The article is very well written but is wrong about one thing, that the fee would just be for goats going through slaughter houses. As the bill was written it would be for all goats sold, even private person to person sales. If I hear any thing else about this bill I will pass that information on but as it stands right now it does not look like it will be passed. Just another example of why it is so important that people get involved and let their represenatives know how they feel and that we need less government in our lives.

Arby's Goat Commercial

2011-02-23T03:22:00.005-06:00

Just thought I would share another funny goat commercial.

Attention KS Goat Producers!! New Fees and Laws Coming Your Way!

2011-02-07T13:20:00.019-06:00

I apologize for this very late notice but I just learned about this Bill myself. There is a new and important bill in the Kansas House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources which needs your input, pro or con as a goat producer. It goes to committee tomorrow so contact your representatives today! I would also encourage goat producers and hobby farmers from other states to read this bill as something like this might be proposed in your own state in the near future if it gets passed here. Here is a link to the bill:

http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2011_12/year1/measures/hb2099/

HB 2099 is for the creation of the "Kansas Goat Council" and a proposed check off fee for every goat sold in Kansas under possible penalty of legal action, fines or imprisonment.

From Bill:

(2) "Any person who unreasonably fails or refuses to pay any assessments due under this act may be subject to legal action by the Council to recover the assessments due, plus interests and costs."

AND

"(e) Any person who violates any provision of this section shall be

guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be subject to a

fine of not less than $25 nor more than $500, or to imprisonment for not

less than 30 nor more than 90 days, or by both such fine and

imprisonment."

The proposed fee is .50 cents per head at this time but that can be changed (in other words, raised) once per year by the Kansas Goat Council as the Bill is worded now. Right now this Bill does make a provision for a refund of these fees if they are more than $5 and you fill out a form. In my opinion, while it sounds good on the surface, this possible refund, (after you fill out the proper form, etc) is STILL an unfair hassle that could be taken away in the future as some people might look to remove the so called "voluntary" status of this goat check-off. I personally have to wonder just how voluntary a program is that threatens lawsuits and fines if you don't pay their fees upfront??

It is true that if a goat is sold through an auction facility or slaughter house the record keeping may not be as burdensome because the facility will likely deduct the check off fee, proposed in this new Kansas law at that time but it will be different for those who sell breeding stock and person to person sales. It will increase paperwork and force breeders to disclose their customer information. (This is a business for many people and that information should be considered proprietary and confidential.)

Of course there will always be that person that says "Well it is only 50 cents per goat sold, is that going to break you?" No, of course not, but the point is we need less government and regulations in our lives, not more. I also think it is wrong that this goat check-off was proposed and created by ONE single goat association, "The Kansas Meat Goat Association" with no input from other goat clubs, associations or long time breeders outside of the KMGA and no input from dairy goat producers before hand. It is particularly unfair to dairy goat breeders who will help support this check-off with fees for every goat they sell but nothing in return as this is a check-off to promote meat goats in the state of Kansas.

Do I think the promotion of meat goats (and dairy goats and their products too which this bill won't do) in Kansas is a good thing? Absolutely, and in theory if written properly and with the input off ALL kansas goat producers a goat check-off could be a good thing, BUT this is a bad bill the way it is written in my opinion and needs to be tabled at least or stopped so it could be looked at further and discussed with the knowledge and participation of all goat producers in KS, not just the board of the KMGA. I have never personally been a member of the KMGA as one only has to talk to past members or go to their website and read their meeting minutes to get a hint of the strife and disagreements with-in the association.

More from this Bill:

"Section 1. (a) There is hereby created the Kansas goat council.

5 (1) The council shall consist of seven members who shall be elected at the annual meeting of the Kansas meat goat association. The board of directors of the Kansas meat goat association shall act as interim council members until council members can be elected and qualified. Vacancies which may occur shall be filled for unexpired terms by the board of directors of the Kansas meat goat association from among the producers of the state."

I just do not think it is right that this Bill is the brain child of only the Kansas Meat Goat association alone with no input from other non-member breeders of goats in Kansas. It appears from what I have read that no effort was made by the KMGA too include or even make producers aware of this bill as according too even some past members of the KMGA (including a past President of the association that is still actively raising meat goats) that the KMGA never made an effort to contact them or make them aware of the proposed Kansas Goat Council while it was still being discussed by the KMGA. (As these past members have posted this themselves on goat yahoo groups over the past few days.)

The following information was posted on a goat yahoo group and I am passing it on for those that would like to contact the commitee members or testify before the committee tomorrow.
------------------------------------------------------------------

House Bill 2099 – Creation of the Kansas Goat Council – will be heard in the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee on February 8, 2011, at 9:00 a.m. in Room 783 in the Docking State Office Building.

If you would like to testify before the committee, please call Kay Scarlett, Committee Assistant, at 785-296-7694. Please provide 35 copies of your written testimony by 8:30 a.m. the day of the meeting.

---------------------------------------------------------------

HB 2099 is pending before the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. Included below are all of the names and email addresses of the committee members. Please contact them today if you have the time and let them know your opinion on this.

Larry Powell, larry.powell@house.ks.gov

Dan Kerschen, dan.kerschen@house.ks.gov

Mike Peterson, mike.peterson@house.ks.gov

Bob Grant, bob.grant@house.ks.gov

Jerry Williams, jerry.williams@house.ks.gov

Ponka-We Victors, ponka-we.victors@house.ks.gov

Vince Wetta, vince.wetta@house.ks.gov

Caryn Tyson, caryn.tyson@house.ks.gov

Willie Prescott, willie.prescott@house.ks.gov

Charlotte O'Hara, charlotte.ohara@house.ks.gov

Tom Moxley, tom.moxley@house.ks.gov

Kyle Hoffman , kyle.hoffman@house.ks.gov

Brett Hildabrand, brett.hildabrand@house.ks.gov

Gary Hayzlett , gary.hayzlett@house.ks.gov

Rocky Fund, rocky.fund@house.ks.gov

Dan Collins, dan.collins@house.ks.gov

Bob Brookens, bob.brookens@house.ks.gov

Elaine Bowers, elaine.bowers@house.ks.gov

Tom Arpke, tom.arpke@house.ks.gov

Kansas Blizzard

2011-02-01T16:55:00.021-06:00

My Grandmother used to say if you don't like the weather in Kansas, then wait five minutes and it will change. I don't think she was too far off with that statement for the crazy weather we have had this past week. Just three days ago it was well over 6o degrees and the weather was so nice that I was almost too warm in a light jacket while outside. That was Saturday and this is Tuesday so now we are under a blizzard warning with temperatures predicted to drop well into the negative digits tomorrow night, maybe even down to 9 below! Wow, what a difference three days can make! These first pictures were taken at 8 AM this morning, at that point it had only been snowing a few hours.

Blowing snow early this morning but I could still see the very tops of the tall grass and the black 55 gallon barrel the goats liked to play on last summer. It has been blown over by the fence (look between the tree and shed in the picture.)

This picture was also taken at 8am this morning. The haziness is all the blowing snow. Notice the extra large, orange water tub by the gate. That tub is one of the very large ones with the rope handles you can sometimes find at Wal-Mart, it is taller than my knees.

I feel so sorry for the wild birds in weather like this, I don't know how they survive it. I could still see all 6 strands of this fence this morning.

Here I am trying to open the back door only 8 hours later at 4 PM today!

We live in a mobile home with the tall, wooden mobile home steps but I can't even see the steps below the back porch!

The high winds seems to have kept the snow from drifting too deep in most of the back yard but our burn barrel is still almost half buried in it.

Remember that black 55 gallon barrel I pointed out in the earlier picture, it is not even visible anymore.

The top of the big orange water tub is still visible, just barely! (Don't worry there are no goats in this pasture right now)

That poor, cold, little bird flew off to hopefully find someplace warmer to roost and the fence got a lot shorter today since only the top three strands are now above the snow.

I worry about the animals in this type of weather. Cinnamon the chicken had to be moved to a smaller room in the old farm house so that two of the Boer bucks could be moved to her room for the night. She found a mouse living in her new room and so I don't think she minded. (Do chickens eat mice? She seemed very determined to find that mouse!) The bucks had shelter but a room in the old farm house/shop will be much warmer for them. Tarps have been hung on the front of the doe's sheds and the heated water buckets and stock tank heaters are out and working. I am so ready for Spring!

I don't know how people that live up north deal with all that snow and cold weather! Copied below is the blizzard warning issued by The National Weather Service for our area and information about the storm and weather here! Brrrrrr!

"Issued by The National Weather Service
Wichita, KS
4:02 pm CST, Tue., Feb. 1, 2011

... BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST WEDNESDAY... ... WIND CHILL ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO NOON CST WEDNESDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN WICHITA HAS ISSUED A WIND CHILL ADVISORY... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO NOON CST WEDNESDAY. A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST WEDNESDAY.

* TIMING... LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOW WILL DIMINISH TO FLURRIES THIS EVENING... WITH BLOWING SNOW AND BITTER COLD WIND CHILLS PERSISTING OVERNIGHT.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS... ADDITIONAL AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE... BRINGING STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 10 TO 15 INCHES OVER SOUTHEAST KANSAS.

* WINDS... STRONG NORTH WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 35 MPH WILL AFFECT THE AREA THROUGH THE OVERNIGHT HOURS.

* IMPACTS... THE STRONG WINDS WILL CREATE BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF SNOW... PRODUCING GROUND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS IN OPEN COUNTRY AND MAKING TRAVEL DANGEROUS. ADDITIONALLY... DANGEROUS WIND CHILL READINGS AROUND 20 BELOW ZERO ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING. TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED!

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITEOUT CONDITIONS... MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. DO NOT TRAVEL. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL... HAVE A WINTER SURVIVAL KIT WITH YOU. IF YOU GET STRANDED... STAY WITH YOUR VEHICLE.

A WIND CHILL ADVISORY MEANS THAT VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS WILL COMBINE TO GENERATE LOW WIND CHILLS. THIS WILL RESULT IN FROSTBITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. IF YOU MUST VENTURE OUTDOORS... MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A HAT AND GLOVES."

One Smart Goat

2011-01-23T00:36:00.003-06:00

I found this video online. Talk about one smart goat!

The Unplanned Chicken

2011-01-14T17:51:00.024-06:00

So we have our first chicken. I have no idea how old she is but according to her previous owners she doesn't even lay eggs anymore, so I guess she is a pet chicken. We had thought about getting some chickens for a couple years now but the goats keep us so busy we just never got around to really deciding on chickens or not. I am afraid our farm has always been chickenless, though a few wild turkeys did decide to make our place the local turkey hang out a couple years ago.

So why did we get a pet chicken in January? After spending almost $15 on chicken feed and grit I am not so sure anymore myself but she has a nice personality and surprisingly this one I think I can blame on my husband, at least for the most part. See the unplanned chicken is actually Jamey's chicken.

The new guy that baled our hay pastures last year (and did a much better job than the hay guy before him) is also a person that used to work with Jamey. I think it was around the time the hay was baled that Jamey went over to his house for some reason and came home talking about some chicken that roosted on their porch. I didn't pay too much attention, I was probably thinking about goats at the time.

Several months went by and we were invited to these people's house one evening to play board games. I had not been there before but as soon as we got out of the car Jamey pointed out the chicken roosting on their patio table and proceeded to tell me all about her again. I guess she refused to stay in the chicken coop because the other chickens picked on her and so she roosted on their front porch every evening instead. She did seem pretty friendly for a chicken, softly clucking "hello" (I guess that is what she was saying) at everyone that walked up to their door like their own little feathered Wal-Mart greeter, all she needed was a tiny blue smock. Jamey even had to go pick her up and show her to me that evening. I watched him carry that bird around and started to wonder if he was smitten with that chicken.

Our friends told Jamey he could take the chicken home on several occasions, personally I think they were getting a little tired of the chicken poo on their patio table and porch. I can't say that I blame them one little bit, if the greeter at Wal-Mart pooed in front of their store I am sure Wal-Mart would fire her pretty quick too.

Jamey wanted to bring her home at that time but I said "no, no" and reminded him we had no place to put her since we have no coop and the room in the old farmhouse/shop was occupied by Cookie the goat expecting winter kids at the time. I was also afraid with no place for her to stay at night some coyote or owl might get her, we have lots of both around our farm.

So we didn't bring the chicken home and time went by. Our friends graciously invited us back over to their house several times and there was still always that chicken sitting on their front porch table.

Then came January and our mild winter turned cold, really cold. It snowed and the weatherman said it would get down in the negative numbers that night. The goats all have shelters so I knew they would be OK and we now had a place in the old farm house to put a chicken since Cookie and her two maturing kids had since been graduated back outside with the other goats. I called Jamey when he got off work and asked him if he wanted to go get that chicken, so he did.

It was all last minute and not thought out at all. So that night we fed her some all stock grain, sunflower seeds, some lettuce (which she turned her beak up at) and some seedless grapes which she did like. We also made her a temporary nest box and perch. The video was taken that first night, the room is actually well lighted and not dark at all when the light is on but for some reason my cheapo camera just makes indoor pictures or video all look dark like this unless I use the flash (which I can't do on video.)

They said she was a Cinnamon Queen chicken. I assume that is a breed like a Red Star or Red Sex Link chicken? I guess we will call her Cinnamon. I know goats but chickens are new for us, so feel free to offer advice! Maybe in the spring we will get some more chickens, some passive ones so they don't chase and bully her out of the coop again. Oh yes I guess we need to build a coop too!

Winter - Farm Photo of the Week

2011-01-14T04:21:00.002-06:00

Winter on the Farm

Some Rather Random Goat Tips

2010-12-29T20:04:00.005-06:00

I was not quite sure what to write about today so I decided to share some random goat management tips off the top of my head. Many I have learned over the years I have spent with goats on my farm.

Goats and Kidding

1. Trim your fingernails short before your goat is due in case of trouble and you have to go in.

2. The new mother goat can have a waxy build-up on the ends of her teats making it possible that her newborns might not be able to get that all important colostrum. Milk out a little colostrum right after they are born to make sure her teats are open and the kids can nurse.

3. If a kid sounds like it has some fluid in it's lungs from kidding you can gently hold them upside down for a moment to help clear it. (Be careful newborn goats are slippery, don't drop him!) Old towels from the thrift store are great to help dry kids if the weather is cold. I always let the doe do some of the cleaning (or all of it in warm, summer weather) as this is them bonding to their kids.

4. If a newborn kid gets severely chilled (he will be limp and his mouth will be cold) you can quickly warm him up in a bath of warm water in the sink but DON'T leave him unattended for even a second and take the chance of his head slipping under water. Also use a thermometer and make sure he does not get too warm. The normal temperature for a goat is 101.5 to 103.5. You can tell when he starts to get warmed up, the inside of his mouth will warm up, he will become more active and vocal! I have revived a couple kids this way that almost looked dead they were so chilled. It helps to put them in a thin plastic bag with their head sticking out so that the water does not rinse off the smell his mother will use to identify him as hers. I will give them a bottle of their own mother's colostrum but I also get these babies back to their mom as soon as they are stable so they don't get rejected.

5. A chilled kid can not digest food properly and will not want to eat. Always warm them up first then feed them.

6. It is very important that newborn kids get colostrum (the first milk their mother's produce that is full of antibodies they need) as soon as possible after birth. If a kid is too weak to nurse off the mother I will bottle feed them this colostrum just to make sure they get some with in an hour of birth.

Goat Management

1. Never, ever leave a nylon or leather collar on a goat unattended and don't ever leave them staked out in the yard when you are not watching them. You might think there is nothing for your goat to get a collar hooked on but they are agile animals that like to stand up to eat leaves, making high branches a possibility or even their own back foot or another goat's horn. I had a man tell me once he had two bucks that must have got to rough housing around and one got his horn under the collar of the other one and strangled him to death. Collars that snap together don't always break either. If you feel you must have a collar on your goat at least get one of the breakable, plastic link ones made for dairy goats. Leaving a goat staked out makes them very easy prey for dogs and predators and puts them at risk of getting tangled up, out of reach of water or strangling themselves. I have had people tell me that "well my goats wear collars and haven't gotten hung up on anything," all I can say is that they don't, until one day out of the blue they do and then it might be too late. It just is not worth the chance for something so preventable.

2. In a large herd, one shelter with a single, narrow door does not always work out. It makes sense to build them that way, we did at first thinking they would be so much warmer for the goats. What we did not count on was the fact there often seems to be a dominate "shed piggy" in the herd that will stand in the doorway, blocking the more passive goats in the herd from coming in out of the cold or rain. I even tried removing said shed piggy from the herd and the next cranky female goat down on the totem pole just took her place. I still had some sad, wet goats standing outside of the door in the rain while the one blocking the door was dry and comfortable and probably smirking. I have found either several different shelters or at least one with a fairly wide doorway (or two doors) works much better and allows all the goats to get in the shed more easily. You can hang blankets or tarps on wider doors to block cold air without blocking access.

3. Feeding large round bales of hay to goats can be cheaper and less work but it can also be tricky too. Goats will waste a lot more of a round bale, they will climb on it and pee on it. There is also a danger in the fact that goats will eat around the bottom part of the bale first, creating an unstable mushroom shape that can collapse on a goat and suffocate them. If you are going to feed round bales in the goat pasture it is important you have a feeder specifically designed for feeding goats this way or you wrap a fence or panel around the bale to keep it stable, safe and keep the goats from climbing on it and wasting so much of it.

4. Trying to go into a herd of goats with a bucket of grain is chaos! If you have a large herd you feed all at once, save yourself some frustration and bruises and build a feed pen with a large, strong, free swinging gate. Have a second gate you can access this pen without walking through the goat pasture. This way you can keep the main gate closed, walk into the empty pen and easily dump their grain into feeders, then open the gate for the goats while safely standing behind the open gate as they run in. Or set up feed troughs along the fence so you can feed them safely from the other side.

I hope you found these tips that make life a little easier on my goat farm helpful. I will be sharing some more helpful goat tips in the future!

Christmas Cookies in a Jar

2010-12-24T15:44:00.012-06:00

This year I decided to give friends and family these really neat "Cookie in a Jar" gifts. They were not difficult to make at all and made a wonderful, homemade gift.

You will need:
1 -1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
2/3 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup holiday red & green M&M's. (or you could use any color of M&M's...pink for Valentines day, etc)
1/2 cup Reese's Peanut butter baking pieces (oops forgot to get them in the picture!)
12/ cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts or chopped pecans.
1 quart sized glass jar with lid.
Some ribbon, holiday colored computer paper, scissors, red or green material, double sided tape, labels or whatever you want to decorate your finished jars with.

Mix the baking soda and salt in with your flour. Put your ingredients into separate containers.

Layer in your jar the following ingredients, adding each ingredient one at a time in the following order: Flour with baking soda & salt, brown sugar, M&M's, Reese's Peanut butter pieces, Coconut, and peanuts. A funnel comes in real handy here. Tap jar gently on the counter to settle and even each layer before adding the next one. You can use a small ladle or spoon to pack each layer slightly but don't go overboard or you will have too much space at the top when you are done.

When you are done your jar should look like this. Don't those layers look pretty?

Next comes the fun part, decorating your Cookies in a Jar gift! I just used a large red holiday table cloth that I found for only $4.50 (and there is plenty there to do several years worth of these gifts!) I cut out 6" X6" squares for my jars which I secured over the lid and under the lid ring. (Or you could just secure it over the whole lid with a rubber band if you like that look better.) I used the double sided tape to help attach a pretty green ribbon bow around the lid as well but you could decorate these any way you like, that is part of fun!

Don't forget to print off the following baking instructions on a label or piece of colorful paper to attach to the jar! I printed it off on green computer paper, cut out with a decorative edge scissor, punched a hole in the top of the label and attached to the jar, hanging with a small piece of ribbon.

1. In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter, softened, with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until smooth. Beat in one egg and one teaspoon vanilla until combined. Stir in contents of jar until combined, knead if necessary.

2. Drop by 2 tablespoon portions, 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Lightly press down to flatten.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 14 minutes or until edges are lightly golden brown. Let set on cookie sheet one minute. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Makes about 20 cookies.

I made a batch of these cookies at home too (shown here mixed up before baking) and they are delicious. If you like chocolate and peanut butter you will like these! I made about 7 of these gifts and figured they cost me about $7 a jar but that is not counting that I still have a lot of red material, some ribbon and lots of double sided tape left for other projects! I also bought the jars new, but I know a lot of you already have these at your house. I loved making and giving these away and I think they made much nicer and more meaningful gifts than I could have found at Wal-Mart for $7!

Whose Your Daddy?

2010-12-19T08:30:00.001-06:00

That is what I would like to know, but their mom Cookie isn't telling. These cute two new baby goats was born this past week, one doeling and one buckling. Cookie knows we are big believers in planned parent hood on the goat farm. Pairings of each doe with a buck is planned in advance and when the doe comes in heat she is either pen bred or only one buck is ran with his chosen girlfriends for that breeding season. Since most of our goats are registered we must know with absolute certainty who the sire is. The other reason is to plan when those babies will be born so as to hopefully avoid freezing weather or to plan for certain times of the year when the market for goats is better than others.

We haven't had a doe bred on our place who we didn't at least know who the sire was until about a month ago when we had the does up in the working pens and I happened to notice Cookie's udder looked quite large. I looked closer and sure enough..."Cookie, you little tart!" I couldn't help but say out loud when I realized she was less than a month for sure from kidding and that those kids would be due in December. Luckily the weather this year has not been nearly as bad as last year but still darn cold enough at night that I did move her to a room in the old shop/farm house so the kids would not be born out in the cold.

Based on what group of goats Cookie was with at the time and looking back on the calender for when Cookie must have had her secret rendezvous told me what happened but not exactly who their father was. One of the young Boer bucklings in the doe pasture last summer must have had a secret May-December romance with Cookie right before we got them moved to the weaning pen. It is a good lesson to make sure those intact buck kids are either castrated or weaned by 10-12 weeks old because some can mature quite quickly. They might not have been planned but they are adorable kids. Cookie seems quite pleased with them and we are as well.

Thank You All So Much!

2010-12-19T05:15:00.004-06:00

I just wanted to say thank you to all the people who left such encouraging and wonderful comments on my blog about my mother. It really meant a lot to me that you took the time to share your stories and offer advice and kind words. It was not a post I planned, I didn't even spell check it. It was just an expression of what I was thinking at the time and I am very touched that so many people took the time to offer words of encouragement and prayer for my mother and our family. Thank you.

More Brave Than I Could Ever Be

2010-12-15T01:53:00.009-06:00

Something has been weighing heavily on my mind lately. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time recently. She had went through surgery and chemo five years ago and beat it then. She just had a mammogram in September that didn't show anything but after that she found a lump herself. Her first chemo treatment this time will be less than a week before Christmas. She puts on a brave front and tries to remain positive. She says "whatever will be, will be" but I also know it is terribly discouraging for her.

I know it has been discouraging for me. Cancer can sure make a person feel helpless. You want to be able to do something, and there is little one can do. It is so easy to take life and even people for granted when you are busy worrying about all the constant little things in life that really are not all that important after all. I think she has been more brave than I could ever be.

Speak Softly - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-12-02T09:10:00.002-06:00

"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far. "
Theodore Roosevelt

One of the Great Pyrenees dogs on our farm loves to carry big sticks he finds around. I wish I could get a closer, better picture of him, especially when he finds a stick that is curved in such a way it pulls his baggy lips up into a big, funny smile, but every time I try to get closer with my camera he puts his stick down and trots up to the fence to say hello. Silly Dudley.

Goat Grazing Company Accused Of Neglect

2010-12-01T06:40:00.031-06:00

The co-owner of Goats R Us, a California based company that uses goats to clear brush and weeds has been charged with neglect of his goats. Egon Oyarzun and his employee Wilfredo Felix have both been ordered to stand trial for the alleged neglect of some of the company's goats after animal control officers reported that some goats in the flock located near the old Oak Knoll Navel Hospital site in Oakland was malnourished and not cared for. Goats R Us was hired to reduce brush at the site.

The goats in question were located in a courtyard of the 167 acre site. Reportedly when the animal control officers arrived on scene they smelled decaying flesh and found multiple dead goats and four very sick goats which were impounded. Many of the other goats in the courtyard were sick from "parasites, pneumonia and other diseases," said Oakland animal services director Megan Webb.

Terri Oyarzun defended her husband Egon and their company. She says that the goats were senior goats, weanlings and rescues separated for extra care. The Oyarzuns depended on their herders to care for the goats, Wilfredo Felix was in charge of them. He was a newer employee who despite having prior experience did not follow protocol and notify them of the problem, according to Terri Oyarzun.

So how did this happen? According to the Goats R Us website they have been in business for over 15 years and goats in their herd are never sold for any reason. They say the goats are their "buddies" and that all of their goats are supplemented year round, wormed three times a year and vaccinated.

I do not know all of the facts of the case, only what I have been able to research online so any thoughts I have on it are merely my opinions based on what I have read. Some articles have stated that the Oyarzun's own about 1,000 goats, working at different sites in the area. Our own farm had a mere 58 goats on it this past spring and so I know how much care and time even a small herd takes. I reduced my goat herd by quite a bit before winter this year to help ensure every goat on the farm gets the best of care and attention they deserve.

It is only speculation on my part but perhaps the success of Goats R Us has been a bit of its downfall. Maybe they got too big, with too many goats and were forced to rely too heavily on hired help to properly over see the care of their own animals like they should. Now I am certainly not saying a very large goat herd can't be well cared for. There are many large herds of healthy goats; but the owners of those animals do know that no matter what their hired help does or does not do, ultimately the buck stops with them as the owner. They are responsible to make sure those animals are cared for properly.

One merely has to read the 70 and growing number of negative comments posted by angry readers of one article posted on the care2 website about the charges against Goats R Us to know that this case has left an ugly, black mark on the business of goat landscaping in some people's minds. Many people are quick to forget that as awful as this is, cases like this are the exception and not the rule. It is truly a shame because up until now goats for brush control has garnered only positive media attention. Everyone read about and loved the "Google goats" and enjoyed the segment about landscaping goats on The Colbert Report. When done responsibly it is a beneficial, environmentally friendly practice for both the goats and the land, while reducing the danger of wildfires for people living in the area. It can also be educational for children in urban areas who have maybe never even seen a goat and don't know anything about them.

My heart goes out to those unfortunate goats who got caught up in this situation, it is very sad indeed. Farmers and owners of these types of businesses involving animals have a responsibility to make sure their animals are always well cared for and treated humanely. Not only for the sake of the animals which are dependent upon us for their needs and who deserve to have a healthy, well cared for life, but for our own future as well. The world is watching and it is our duty to educate the public about all the good that most of these businesses and farmers do and how much we really do care about and for our animals.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=7815753

http://lamorinda.patch.com/articles/co-owner-herder-of-orinda-goat-leasing-firm-charged-with-animal-cruelty

http://lamorinda.patch.com/articles/orindas-goats-r-us-owner-gives-companys-side-of-neglect-accusation#c

http://www.goatsrus.com/index.htm

http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/blog/justice-for-abused-goats/

** The picture is not of or related to the Goats R Us case. This is a picture of one of my own goats demonstrating why they are so good at brush and weed control**

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T06:34:00.003-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving from the goats on the farm!

Update on Pepper

2010-11-21T22:25:00.001-06:00

Some of you may remember our Nubian buck Pepper who first came to our farm last year as a bottle baby. If you missed that post you can read about it and see some baby pictures of Pepper by clicking here. What a cute baby he was!

It didn't take Pepper long to mature and start acting like a buck though, even at a quite young age. Even as young as he was he became infatuated with the female goats on the other side of the fence. Some of you may remember he let his hormones get the best of him and tried to jump a fence to get back to the gate where the does were but he did not quite make it and broke his leg. Of course this happened very late in the evening so my husband and I used what materials we had to splint his leg until we could get him to the vet the next morning. You can read all about that adventure here.

I thought an update on Pepper is way past due! This video was actually taken back in September but as you can see he is doing well! He did spent over six weeks with a splint on his leg but it did heal very well. If you did not know you could not tell he ever broke it. Does he still let his hormones get the best of him? Yes! He still paces and watches the female goats on the other side of the farm all the time. This is the reason I am having a little trouble putting some weight on him. Though Pepper did finally get his first "date" with a girl goat a couple weeks ago. For all of his hormone driven antics he was actually quite the goat gentleman and the doe was impressed. I guess all that practice "courting" his empty, over-turned food dish all over the pasture paid off. hehe

Thank You Veterans

2010-11-11T13:43:00.005-06:00

America is founded on the principle of freedom, justice and liberty for all. I want to take this moment to thank our brave soldiers both retired and in active duty for their service and sacrifice for this country and all of our freedoms. I wish you and your families a safe and good Veteran's Day.

Reflections - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-11-11T02:36:00.004-06:00

The goats take a stroll around the pond one winter day.

*Click on pictures to make them larger*

Cute Goat Commercial and More Problems For Small Dairy Farms

2010-11-02T04:47:00.012-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts but I have been sick the last week or so. There are some new happenings on the farm and things I want to write about but for now I am going to have to leave you with this cute goat commercial. I don't really get what the goat or the frog is saying or even why the goat has a frog on her head (maybe I am not supposed too?) but it made me smile...between coughs and sneezes!

In MUCH LESS cute news, actually quite sad and scary news... the Henwhisperer writes about how the FDA is kicking around two family dairy farms. They can't sell their cheese and are at risk of going out of business, but she also provides info on what we can do to help! I don't know about how other people feel but these guns drawn, over the top raids on family farms and raw food stores sure put a very scary and dark cloud over the dream and prospect of starting a like farm enterprise or even the prospect of selling milk from our farm at some point in the future, even strictly with-in the guidelines of the law. I guess that is what they want though. Good, honest people just trying to make it on the family farm are treated like drug dealers. Very sad!

Joker's Tree - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-10-22T18:04:00.005-05:00

This is Joker, he is one of the Boer bucks on Shiloh Prairie Farm. He is a little over two and a half years old now, and he has been on the farm since he was about six months old. Joker's hobbies include eating zucchini, tomato taste tester, acting macho for the girl goats on the farm and chopping down trees with his horns. He is not very good at chopping down trees though, he has been butting, scratching and working on chopping down this old Walnut tree for about two years. He wanted to be a lumberjack but nobody wanted to pay him by the hour, even if he does just work for zucchini.

Goats Steal Landscaping Jobs

2010-10-16T14:56:00.006-05:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

People Destroying America- Goats Steal Landscaping Jobs

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

2010 Election

March to Keep Fear Alive

Sally from The Two of Us blog told me about this hilarious segment on The Colbert Report.

Pssst! I Need to Talk to You

2010-10-10T19:34:00.007-05:00

Blackie the buck pleads his case.

"Pssst, yea you, come over here a minute. No, I don't want a kiss! I need to talk to you man to ma..err billy goat. I haven't had a girlfriend since last fall man. It is just cruel and unusual punishment I tell ya!"

"Excuse me, yea you...with the camera, this is a private conversation! Stop eavesdropping! She is the one that locked me in here, all while she was spouting off something about no kids in cold February, I would have to wait. hmph! I let the does worry about the kids. You wouldn't believe how many baby mammas I have! "

"Let me out, pretty please. That is the latch right there, just unhook it. All the pretty doe goats are right over there. See the red headed one? She has been flirting with me ALL DAY! I could get to those pretty girl goats if you would just let me out?"

"I would get it myself, but I don't have thumbs and using my horn just is not working."

"Oh you're not going to let me out? I thought us guys were supposed to stick together? Well, if you scratch my neck I guess I won't be mad at you. Yea and leave that smell on your hands...the girls LOVE it!"

Leaf Carnage

2010-10-07T17:06:00.016-05:00

One night this past summer there was a thunderstorm. The wind blew, the lightening flashed and the rain poured down through the night but the storm was gone by daybreak and the morning brought sunshine and blue skies.

It was at that time I also realized that the tree beside our big feed pen had fallen to the storm. I really hated to lose that tree. It had provided shade for me and the goats when I had to trim hooves or work them in that pen and it's fork gave me a place to set a water bottle up high away from curious goat lips while I was outdoors.

I don't think the goats would miss that tree though, truth be known I think they played a part in it's demise by eating the bark on one side of it's trunk making it weak to the wind of the storm. I figured it was only fitting to let them finish what they started. So we piled the leafy limbs high in the pen and opened the gate.

LEAVES!!

The goats rushed in and started stripping and tearing all the leaves from the fallen tree, it was brutal. They didn't waste a second or a leaf.

They competed to see who could stuff the most leaves in their mouth the fastest and the tree limbs got more bare by the minute.
Blackie the buck didn't think it was fair that the girls got all the fresh leaves. He stood up on the fence with sad eyes and whined, "ahh...ahhh" as he watched the the leaves disappear like candy in front of spoiled children. A friend took heart to his complaints and gave him a hand so he could get some tasty leaves too.

The leaves never really had a chance, I mean just look at that face! It was total leaf carnage and in no time all that was left was a few stripped bare branches and a lonely tree stump.

Sunshine Award

2010-10-06T11:00:00.006-05:00

I had such a nice surprise when one of my readers Olivia told me she had gave me a Sunshine Award on her blog, Liv's Farm. The award is very nice, thank you Olivia! Really the best and most touching part for me though was her really kind words about my blog. It means a lot to me that this nice, young lady takes the time to read my blog and likes it. You should check her blog out, there are beautiful Nubian goats, great horse pictures, interesting posts and it is just a lot of fun to read!

Here are the rules.

Save the image to the left and post it on your own blog
Pass the award to your favorite bloggers
Link to their blogs
Let your award winners know they have won this award by commenting on their blog
Here are my winners: (Really all the blogs I follow are winners, so not sure I should use the term "winners" but I did manage to pick out a few blogs from the many great blogs I follow, it was not easy to narrow it down. I really couldn't narrow it down so I did try to pick some great blogs I may not have mentioned in awhile.)

BooneDocksWilcox - Country life at its best! Adorable Nigerian dwarf goats, beautiful, fun pictures, recipes, great posts and Franklin the turkey!

City Gal Moves to Oz Land - Fellow Kansas resident and a great blogger! I am glad she did move to "Oz Land" because she captures some amazing, gorgeous photos of the great things about Kansas. She also writes a very interesting blog!

Bossy Betty - If you love to laugh you really should check her blog out. I think she is an amazing writer, I want to be able to write like her. Her blogs are thought provoking, interesting and so often just hilarious. I don't know why she isn't writing a book.

Mainely Ewes Farm - This well written, beautiful blog makes me want to live in New England and I HATE the cold and snow so that says a lot! They have a gorgeous farm and lots of fun animals. I think anyone who has ever dreamed of someday living in the country has pictured this blogger's life in their head.

Hauling Goats in Cars...It Could Be Worse.

2010-09-30T12:05:00.004-05:00

My husband thought I was a little bit off to haul a goat in a car and while he was pretty much a good sport about it, he did complain about Dym's hot breath and sweet little "goat kisses" on his ear while he was driving. Oh Jamey it could be worse...just be glad we don't raise camels!

GM Soy Diets Lead to Reproductive Changes in Rats

2010-09-29T11:45:00.005-05:00

Jeffrey Smith -- Genetically Modified Soy Diets Lead to Ovary and Uterus Changes in Rats

I just read this eye opening and rather alarming article about some of the possible health risks GMO's and problems that the chemicals they are sprayed with might cause. You can click the link above to read it too. It is somewhat long but definitely worth reading. This got me to thinking, is there a simple list of foods out there that contain GMOs? A specific, detailed list of individual products is hard to find because in the US, food containing GM plants don't have to be labeled. I did come across this article & general list of things to watch out for. All the more reason to plant a garden, buy organic and support small, local farms.

Thank You Octoberfarm!

2010-09-26T17:42:00.009-05:00

I love "good mail" days when something arrives at my door other than junk mail and bills. Not too long ago I was having a particularly bad day. I don't even remember specifically why it was a bad day... it just was. It so happened that was the day I got a box in the mail. What could this be? The Halloween themed return address label gave me a clue! It was the prize I won from a giveaway at Octoberfarm.blogspot.com! Now that helped to turn my day around!

I apparently had misunderstood the giveaway. It was from a post where Jaz went to West Point Market and I thought ONE of the items she talked about in the post was the giveaway prize. I was surprised when I kept finding one neat item after another in the box! It was just FULL of wonderful things! There was candy bars and cookies. They are not in this picture because I waited too long to post about this and they just didn't last that long in a house with my chocoholic husband! :) (He says thank you for the chocolate Jaz!) There was honey, tea, a neat little toothpick holder, the funny "skullions" kitchen towel and probably my favorite was the strawberry shaped magnet that holds a small pair of scissors. That had to be my favorite because scissors are always getting lost around here, now there will be a pair right where I can find them.

There was so much in the box that I am sure I forgot something but I wanted to say "thank you!" to Jaz at Octoberfarm for her very generous gift! If you get a chance you really should check out her blog, especially if you like Halloween, great recipes, giveaways or totally adorable Chow Chow dogs!

Horse Round Bale Hay Feeder - NOW SOLD.

2010-09-25T16:34:00.011-05:00

EDITED TO ADD: Feeder Now SOLD!

I have a used big round bale horse hay feeder for sale. We bought it new from the farm store a couple years ago. It is still in good and very usable shape. I called to find out the price of a new one and was quoted $265 from Cleavers farm store in Chanute and $299 from the farm store in Parsons. I am asking $150 for this one, that is well over a $100 savings off of a new one. This really saved on the amount of hay our horse wasted and the shape of it kept her from rubbing her mane out like they can with a regular cattle hay feeder. It would have to be picked up from our farm in southeast Kansas. No shipping. It can be disassembled into 3 pieces for hauling in the back of a truck. That is the way we got it home when we bought it new. It is also listed on the sales page of our website at http://shilohprairiefarm.weebly.com/sales.html (scroll to bottom of page.)

Jennifer
Shiloh Prairie Farm
www.kansasboergoats.com
Erie, Kansas

Who Could Resist That Smile? - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-09-23T01:28:00.005-05:00

If you are not familiar with goats you might notice that our young friend here seems to have a rather "gummy" smile. This is because like other ruminant animals, goats have no "top" or upper incisor teeth, instead they have a "dental pad" on top and lower incisor teeth on the bottom. They use their front teeth on the bottom and dental pad for biting off leaves and grass. In the back of their mouths goats have teeth on their top and bottom jaws. These back teeth, premolars and molars, are used for grinding their food so that it can be more easily digested.

*Click on pictures to make them larger*

The Pickpocket - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-09-14T00:37:00.004-05:00

Remembering 9-11

2010-09-11T13:45:00.005-05:00

I can't help but feel sad on this day each year as I remember the events of that terrible day. It is hard to believe it has been nine years, it does not seem like it has been that long. Even though it is not a pleasant thing to remember it is important that we do. That we take the time to remember all the firefighters, police officers and paramedics that risked their lives and even gave their lives to save others. They are all heroes and should be remembered as such.

It is important that we remember all the people who died even though they had done nothing wrong but to go to work that day to provide for their children and families. I know this is a particularly difficult day for the families of those lost and I pray for them. We can not forget the lessons of that day and always tell our family and friends that we love them because we never know what tomorrow might bring. When times are tough we must remember to be kind to each other and to help our neighbors because despite race, religion, or income we are all in this together.

Kansas Cowbird?

2010-09-04T22:53:00.005-05:00

This picture was taken south of Wichita, Kansas. It was on the way home from delivering Dym the goat to her new family that I saw this bird sitting on the back of a cow. I figured it was some type of Egret. Can somebody tell me what kind it is? I was just curious about that.

Pictures can be made larger by clicking on them.

News - Goats Stranded On Narrow Ledge

2010-09-03T19:56:00.003-05:00

Goats are curious creatures. Curious creatures that also like to climb up onto things and this can sometimes get them into trouble. Two young goats in Montana learned this recently when they climbed out onto the thin ledge of a railroad bridge. Goats can also be tough and resilient animals when they need to be too though. After spending nearly two days on the high, narrow ledge the two goats still appeared to be in good condition, if rather hungry at an animal sanctuary after they were rescued. Rescuers are searching for the goat's owners but if they are not found the two ledge walking goats have already had other people offering to adopt them. Don't you just love an animal rescue story with a happy ending?

Goats rescued after 2 days on 6-inch ledge - read news story here.

The Winged Goat Welcomes You

2010-09-02T19:28:00.015-05:00

Lookie what is on eBay right now, a winged goat statue, wearing a collar (of course he is, how else are you going to catch a flying goat?) and holding a welcome sign. When I first saw it I thought, "well, now that is just odd" but the more I looked at it the more it started to grow on me. I think it is very interesting and unique. You can see it on eBay HERE.

If our hot water heater had not burst this week, making us about go broke to buy a new one I would SO BUY this statue. It goes with absolutely nothing around or in my house, but why does every thing have to match anyway? Who made that law that things must match and go together. Why can't we wear plaid green shorts and a hot pink, striped t-shirt? I say we can, why not and I could have a Gothic, freaky cool looking, winged goat statue right along with my western/countryish decor. Oh yes I could...if I wasn't broke at this moment that is.

Drats, I doubt I can convince the husband this winged fellow is a necessary item while we are eating beans for the 3rd time this week. He just doesn't realize how useful this could be to him. Why? because I always make Jamey answer the door when strangers come by to hand out pamphlets, educate us on their views or sell us steaks; while I hide in the house. (oh come on, you know you have done it too!) There isn't much I avoid but come walking up to my door with an armful of pamphlets or another vacuum sweeper I don't need and I suddenly remember there was something very important to do in the other room, "So would you answer the door please honey?" (Don't judge me) I think if we had mister awesome, strange, Gothic, winged goat fairy creature here sitting on our porch to welcome strangers carrying pamphlets they might just skip our house. Oh, that is a lovely thought isn't it. (sigh) Of course if appliances keep breaking around here the beans alone might be enough to keep them from staying long (OK, that was just gross, you can judge me on that one.)

This statue is being offered by The Whistling Cat and Aunt Kristy on eBay. She also has a winged pig and horse statue if that is more your thing.

I did not receive anything to post about this. I just saw something neat and wanted to share it. Photo used with permission.

The Vacation House - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-09-01T23:49:00.005-05:00

Belle says, "Funny, it looked much larger in the brochure."

Taking Dym Home

2010-08-30T05:42:00.000-05:00

In my last blog post I talked about some of the difficult decisions I have to make on the farm when it comes time to reduce the size of our goat herd. We do this so that the amount of pasture we have will support our herd because less crowded conditions are less stressful to the goats and do make for healthier, happier animals.

One of the goats that found a new home this year was a Nubian doe named Dym. It is never easy to let one go, especially a goat as friendly as Dym but I know she is in a wonderful new home with a family that will give her lots of care and attention. Mandy had bought a Boer wether from us back in 2006 and gave him such a nice home that I contacted her about if they would like to add a Nubian like Dym to their family with the condition that if they ever decided in the future they no longer could keep her that I would take her back. She is a special girl and I did not want her to end up at a sale barn. There is only one other goat at her new home which I imagine suits Dym quite fine since she really does love to be the center of attention.

We took Dym to her new home south of Wichita about three weeks ago and it was a little bit more of an adventure than I had planned. Dym is a very tame and easy to handle goat so I figured we could just put a tarp in the backseat of our little red car and haul her that way instead of taking an uncomfortable and gas guzzling truck.

We had planned on driving Dym up to her new home on Saturday. Jamey had taken a vacation day earlier in the week to make sure we got our hay put up before it rained and his job was not very supportive of it so he unexpectedly had to work Friday night. So right from the beginning we got a late start. It was not a bad drive at all though and the miles went by quickly, maybe a little too quickly for me.

Dym did so well in the car, just like I knew she would. Honestly, she rode better in the car than most dogs I have known! She looked out the side window part of the time but most of the way she just held her head between the front seats and over our shoulders. That is just like Dym, always wanting to be a part of things.

We saw lots of hay fields on the way up there. I guess we were not the only ones scrambling to get hay baled after all the rain in July. Not long after we went through the last town before our destination we started hearing an awful...thud..thud..thud. Oh no, what a wonderful time to get a flat tire! The road we were on did not have good shoulders so we quickly pulled into the end of a driveway in front of a well manicured lawn.

Jamey checked the trunk...no spare, not even a donut. Apparently Jamey had taken it out in order to have more room to haul things in the trunk and it did not get put back. I had just assumed it was still in there for the trip. OK, plan B, fix-a-flat sealant to the rescue! Nope, that didn't work either, the can wouldn't even spray right. Geez, talk about unprepared, no spare and a defective can of Fix a flat. There was obviously no Boy Scouts on this trip.

This was about the time the owner of the house came out. He was nice enough to quickly help us air up the tire with his portable air compressor. He didn't seem to be the slightest bit surprised or even curious as to why we had a 130lb goat in the backseat. We had both saw a tire shop back in town just a few miles away so we headed back but the car only made it about a mile down the road before the tire went flat again. Drats!

One thing we DID have was a cell phone! So we called Mandy and she was nice enough to drive out to where we were. Luckily we were only a few miles away. While we waited, I got Dym out of the car and held her off the road, along side the ditch while Jamey took the flat tire off the car. Strangely enough lots of people slowed way down at the sight of a goat on a leash beside the highway but no one stopped to ask if we needed any help. I can't judge them too much, they could have been afraid that us AND our GOAT might need a ride somewhere! hehe

It did not take Mandy long at all to pull up in her handy SUV and she was nice enough to give us and the goat a ride to the tire shop! Tire now fixed, and with some much appreciated help we did manage to get Dym to her new home. A pretty, country place with a walnut grove and some new friends, a Boer wether and two cute little miniature horses. I sure am going to miss that goat but she could not have went to a better home or a nicer family and that makes it easier.

Tough Decisions on the Farm

2010-08-17T06:30:00.003-05:00

When I was a child I dreamed of living on a farm. I do not know exactly when I decided I wanted to live in the country, I know it was even before my sister and I started taking horseback riding lessons and that was at age 8. It quite possibly was one of my very first wants in life...right after a pet giraffe. I never did get that pet giraffe as a child but as an adult I did eventually get the life in the country I have always dreamed of and have had the pleasure of living it for the last 13 years.

I think the thing I love the most about having acreage of my own is the possibilities are almost endless. All those wonderful possibilities also come with lots of decisions to be made though. Most important of these is what type of farm is this going to be? My husband and I made the decision quite a long time ago that ours was going to be a working farm. We will never get rich from it and I don't see us both ever being able to not have to work off the farm but we will gain self-sufficiency and make a small profit each year from it. That is our goal, and one that demands many decisions on the farm come from a business perspective. This is not always easy and I do my best to try and balance what I think is right for the individual animal with what is in the best interest of the entire herd and farm as a whole.

A couple years ago I was shopping for a new Boer buck for our goat herd. My husband and I went to quite a few different farms and talked to several different goat breeders. One lady we talked too has had success buying and raising meat goats and selling them direct to ethnic buyers. She has done the leg work and is no doubt a farmer with a very good business head on her shoulders. I have a great deal of respect for her and could no doubt learn a few things from her about making a farm profitable. While we were there she pointed out an old doe and told us with pride that she had kidded 14 times with at least twins and usually triplets or quads each time. She then told us that goat was going on the next truck to be jerky, mostly do to her age no doubt along with some udder problems she had developed recently.

This could just be the difference between someone who was raised on a farm (as she obviously was) and someone like me who spent my childhood with pet dogs and cats but a doe like that would earn a permanent retirement on my farm. I do have a few older does like Trouble and Hope that have certainly done right by me and this farm and they will live out the rest of their lives here. Still, we simply can not keep them all or this would quickly turn into a goat sanctuary and retirement home, not a farm with any possible hope of being self sustaining.

On the other side of that coin I know a couple people that have some beautiful goats but they hardly ever sell any female goats from their fairly large herds, most are kept from birth to death. I am not talking about a few pets but large herds. These people are clearly attached to their animals, as they give them every thing they have. While I certainly respect this and consider it noble, these herds just keep growing larger each year causing considerable financial strain for their owners. This has the potential to affect the entire herd negatively.

I try my best to find a balance between these two extremes. One with respect for the individual animal, but not over the health and well-being of the herd as a whole and not over our goals of being a self-sustaining farm. I don't want to make each decision with cold and callous profit margins in mind but I also do not want to let my sensitive heart lead our farm into bankruptcy either. If you are going to raise meat goats, many are going to go for meat... there is a reason it is in the name and not all dairy bucklings can (or even should be) sold as herd sires either.

Only the best few bucklings each year are left intact on our farm, all others are wethered. I also know we can't keep every doe born on the place no matter how cute they are. I will send a female goat that doesn't meet our standards to the sale barn just the same as a buckling. That is not to say I also won't go out of my way to place a particularly special and sweet natured animal that is healthy but not as productive on our farm in a good pet home over making a few bucks at the sale barn with them. I still have to be able to sleep at night.

We reduced the goat herd this year and I had to look at individual animals and decide who was going to stay and who was going to go. These are the type of decisions while certainly not easy are necessary on the farm. I sold most of our good four year old 50% Boer does in our herd. These were a good deal for someone else, productive does that are at their prime, while I kept their younger, higher percentage Boer yearling daughters. That was not the easiest thing to do, as all of those does had been on our farm since birth but maintaining a herd size our pastures can easily support is essential not only from an economic and goal achieving stand-point but also for over-all herd improvement and health.

So what are the difficult decisions you face on your farm or homestead and how do you make them?

Stop Pushing Me! - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-08-15T22:37:00.003-05:00

"Stop pushing me, I was here first!"

You've Come A Long Way Baby

2010-08-05T22:30:00.011-05:00

This yearling doe spends a lazy summer day with her friends in the goat pasture. Some of you might remember her from her birth pictures. She sure has changed in the last year hasn't she?

The Billboard Goats

2010-07-22T00:45:00.004-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Don't think your business billboard is getting enough attention? Put some goats on it!

*If the video above does not show up, you can also find it HERE on the msnbc website.

A Good Vantage Point - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-07-20T10:27:00.003-05:00

Abby, our livestock guardian dog likes to find a high vantage point to watch over her herd of goats.

An Overdue Thank You

2010-07-18T10:01:00.004-05:00

I would like to consider myself a polite person and I usually am. I am also a procrastinator though and so I often walk around with blog posts I want to write about in my head until I get around to actually sitting down and posting them. One of those things I have wanted to write about for awhile is the really nice prize I won when I entered a Giveaway on the blog Flartopi a.

I don't get much in my mailbox other than bills so I was very happy to receive a lovely bar of soap and a bottle of Rose/Patchouli lotion from Flartus. I want to say thank you so very much Flartus, I loved my prize!

You are probably wondering what kind of a name is Flartus and what is Flartopia? It is a great blog about gardening, and cooking among other things. If you ever had one of those days when you stand in front of the freezer and just don't know what to cook, then you definitely should check out this blog. You will also get to meet the completely adorable Rosie and learn about a chef and a teacher that are doing their part to help promote farmers markets and that care about local farmers, which I think is really cool. If you are still wondering about the name Flartus, you will just have to go to her blog and find out about that yourself.

I Didn't Inhale - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-07-14T17:03:00.005-05:00

When I asked Blackie the goat just what he was doing, his only reply was, "I didn't inhale".

A Hopeful Heart

2010-07-09T19:10:00.008-05:00

I don't think I have taken as much time as I should in the past to look for the special little things in life. I am trying to change that and to take the time to appreciate all the beauty in the world around me. Like a beautiful sunrise, morning dew shining on the grass, or the way the tree leaves rustle in the wind.

I do know one person who knows how to appreciate the special little things in life and in the heart of nature. In fact she has a wonderful and interesting blog called Random Hearts dedicated to it. Clytie was kind enough to feature a picture of a goat I raised on her "Guest Heart Thursdays" blog post yesterday. This goat's registered name is "Chance's Hopeful Heart" but we always called her Heart for short. Can you figure out why? Heart was not alone on Clytie's blog this week, you should really check out the other animals with heart on her blog.

And what about Heart the goat? She is doing well, Heart and her two young kids went to live in a wonderful home and now belongs to a couple of the nicest people you could ever meet, sisters Deb and Dee. Who also own Heart's two younger half sisters as well, so she went to live with family you could say!

I do still have some of Heart's other sisters and one of her doe kids from 2009 on the farm. This is an old picture of Heart's doeling taken last year when she was a kid. I can't believe I don't have a more recent one. I had not even planned on keeping her last year but she has turned out to be such a nice goat. She isn't going anywhere now!

Heart's mother Hope is also still on the farm, you may remember her as the alfalfa loving goat.... definitely not her most flattering picture! So I promised Hope the goat I would make it up to her by posting a much nicer picture of her on the blog, one where she isn't stuffing her face with alfalfa anyway. Three generations of great goats, Grandmother Hope, Daughter Heart and now Granddaughter....shoot she still needs a name! I am terrible.

Hope as a three year old.

Kansas Sunrise

2010-07-01T01:02:00.005-05:00

Good Morning!

A colorful Kansas sunrise on the farm.

Shame on Me

2010-06-30T01:52:00.005-05:00

Wow, 3 whole posts for June and two of those were pretty much just pictures. This blog has definitely been lacking this past month and I apologize to anyone who takes the time to read it. I am still here, the farm is still going and the goats are all doing well. I guess I have just been in a blogging funk the last month. There has been lots of thoughts and things to write about but somehow I haven't been able to type them out for some reason.

The problem has been made worse by the fact our high speed Internet was taken out by lightening......again. Back to dial-up for the time being and all the waiting and half loaded websites that comes with it. The upside of all that waiting on web pages to load is my desk is finally clean and my spider solitaire skills are getting scary good. If I haven't visited your blog in awhile I am sorry, I am hoping our regular Internet service will be fixed soon.

Funky Goat Dance - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-06-22T02:31:00.006-05:00

Even newborn goat kids know that you got to live each day to the fullest. Let loose and dance!

Achoo! - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-06-03T00:39:00.009-05:00

Don't you just hate it when someone takes a picture just as you sneeze?

It is almost as bad as those Thanksgiving family dinner photos of you.

OK, Lacey the goat was actually yawning, but we all know goat sneezes are so much funnier than goat yawns. The second picture is one of our Boer goats Hope...what can I say, she really loves her alfalfa hay.

So what is your most embarrassing photo experience?

Goat Vital Signs

2010-06-03T00:05:00.006-05:00

Temperature - 101.5 - 103.5

Respirations - Adults - 12-20 per minute.
Kids - 20 - 40 per minute.

Pulse - 70-80 beats per minute.

Rumination - 1-2 per minute.

Estrus cycle - 18-23 days

Gestation - 146 - 156 days. (most of ours kid on day 150)

The inside of the lower eyelid should be red or dark pink.

Meet the New Kids

2010-05-15T12:04:00.007-05:00

Our spring kidding season is finally over with and the new goat kids are growing up fast already. I hope to get a sales list out to the people on our waiting list for goat kids in the next few days. It has been a hectic spring and I am running behind on many of the things on my "To Do" list. When the last doe kidded this spring we ended up with 32 goat kids born, 18 bucklings and 14 doelings. These are not all of them by any means but just a few pictures of some of the new kids on the farm.

This Boer doeling and her mother are just relaxing on the old walnut tree stump.

There were some red Boer kids born this year. I just love the solid red Boer goats.

This old tree log is worn smooth from goat kids jumping and playing on it.

More spring born Boer goat kids, the black headed one is a doe and the red one is a buck.

This doe is a 75% Boer / 25% Nubian cross. I personally really like this cross. I don't know if it is the hybrid vigor or all that milk they get from their Boer/Nubian cross moms but they almost always have the quickest weight gain. This is one of Penny's kids.

Two Purebred Boer kids, what sweet faces!

A curious Boer doeling.

A peaceful afternoon for these girls, chewing cud and laying on the walnut stump.

A couple of the 97% Boer kids.

One of Cookie's bucklings, he sure has grown a lot since this picture.

One of Belle's kids. Belle is a doe I had on the sales page of our website last year, she is a great doe that just didn't sell because she is a bit on the plain side compared to the flashy black and paint goats we had for sale at the time. That plain white doe had this pretty black doeling and a really nice blonde buck. I am kind of glad she didn't sell!

This blonde buckling is the brother to the black doeling in the picture above. Sometimes siblings can be very different colors!

My husband calls this doeling "Miss Pretty" because she is so feminine and had such a pretty face as a kid. We both had a laugh the other day when we noticed "Miss Pretty" really needs a shave! I have never seen a kid with so many whiskers and long "eyebrow" hairs!

The Proud Pappas

Facebook goat arrives in Florida

2010-05-14T16:44:00.001-05:00

Facebook goat arrives in Florida

Just a neat story about an orphan goat and some generous Facebook users!

How to Talk to a Little Baby Goat

2010-05-10T02:08:00.004-05:00

I always thought goats said "Maaaa" and sheep said "Baaa" but it is a cute kid's song. (get it..kids..haha) I bet it made you smile!

Mother's Day Wishes

2010-05-09T16:03:00.003-05:00

Happy Mother's Day!
I hope every Mom out there had a very special day, you greatly deserve it for all that you do!

Brothers Make Good Pillows - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-05-08T02:03:00.004-05:00

These two brother and sister goat kids have found a comfortable place to nap as their mother "Penny" looks on.

The Future of Food

2010-04-27T20:01:00.014-05:00

Watch the movie by clicking here.

I recently watched this documentary and it was quite an eye opener. This fascinating film has actually been around for a few years but if you have not seen it I would highly recommend watching it; especially if you are concerned about the unlabeled, genetically modified (GM) foods your family is probably eating. You can watch the entire film on Hulu by clicking on the link above. The first ten minutes move a little slow in this film but stick with it because it does get better, and more disturbing as well.

You will learn how huge corporations like Monsanto are increasing their control over our food supply, raking in profits from consumers while keeping a controlling boot on the throats of farmers with patent laws and threats of lawsuits. Many of these farmers like Percy Schmeiser claim their crops were contaminated with Monsanto's GM seeds through no fault of their own. That is part of the concern with GM crops, nature does what it has always done and those seeds get spread by birds, wind or other natural means to non-GM crops. This is one of the many problems with putting a patent on plants and animals... on life. The result is farmers get sued and we lose more and more of the genetic diversity of our food.

So what is wrong with that, you may ask. Well this educational film gives some compelling answers to that question. For one thing, not only do we not fully understand the possible or maybe even probable health consequences of GM foods but they are not even labeled to begin with so consumers can make their own choices about whether or not they want to feed them to their families.

So what can you do? First educate yourself on this important issue. Take the time to watch The Future of Food or do some research online. This is something that will affect every single one of us. The second and most important thing you can do is to support your local farmers. Visit a farmer's market in your area. Not only will you find flavorful, healthy, non-GM food for your family but when you buy locally produced food, you will be voting with your wallet that you do care about small farmers and your family's health. You can make a difference!

Over 100 Goat Posts!

2010-04-26T00:31:00.012-05:00

I just noticed the other day after I posted about Party's new kids that I have made over 100 posts on this blog about goats. That is a lot of goat talk! So just in case you are not totally sick of reading about the goats or in case you missed some of them I decided to post some links to a few of my favorite goat blog posts from the past. You can find them below, or you can click on the different labels on the sidebar of this blog to read more past posts. I also want to thank everyone that has taken the time to read my blog or leave comments. Thank you for giving me an outlet to talk about our farm and goats without totally driving my husband crazy by talking about the goats to him all the time!

Some of my favorite goat posts from the past.

The Lap Goat
Learn about and watch a video of Peeps, our resident lap goat.

Who Me?
Just who did eat the last of the molasses protein tub?

Goat Tears
Nature's pain remedy.

Embarrassed by a Tomato
The goats taste test some mutant butt fruit.

Google Goes to the Goats
Google hires goats...no kidding.

Goats in the Pasture
Catchy Bluegrass song about goats! Love it!

Rose the Goat Gives Birth
Pictures of our goat Rose during and after giving birth to her kids.

Nifty...Don't Ever Do THAT Again!
Nifty the goat almost gives me a heart attack.

Quiet Time with the Goat Herd
Spend some time relaxing with the goats.

Tongue Tied
The goats (and dogs) let me know what they really think of all the picture taking.

Who Knew Goats Were Such Criminals?
It is a goat crime wave.

Doe Code of Honor
For all the goat "midwives" out there about to pull their hair out.

Goat Therapy
No need to pay that therapist all your money, get some goat therapy!

Want to read more about the goats? Just go to the side of this blog, under "labels" and click on "Goats".

Some Goat Care & Management Posts.

Why Goats Should Not Have Pokeweed Parties.

Magic & Revive Treatment For Goats

The Does & Don'ts of Buying Goats

Kidding Kit & Tips for Kidding Time

Symptoms of a Sick Goat

To read more goat care posts like these just go under "labels" on the side bar of this blog and click on "Goat Care and Management".

Props To Party

2010-04-23T17:47:00.010-05:00

This is Paint Party, well that is her registered name but we just call her Party. She is a purebred Boer doe that was born on our farm. Party is one of my favorite does, she is usually very laid back and doesn't let much bother her. Party is a first time mom this year and since these would be her first kids I was trying to keep a close eye on her before she kidded. I usually set my alarm and check on goats that are very close to kidding several times during the night but in my sleepy haze I must have set my alarm wrong after checking on her at midnight. So it was about six hours later before I woke up to check on her again and it was getting light outdoors.

I went out to find Party didn't need my help or supervision at all (Not that I thought she would). She must have waited that night until I went in the house to start having her kids. Truth be known she was probably thinking "Finally, I didn't think that nosy person would ever leave! Time to get to business!" By first light she had two new, clean and well fed babies, which she was protectively standing over. She would nuzzle and nudge them and it was quite obvious she learned from her mom Hope all the lessons of being a great goat mom.
In fact she must have picked up a few new mom tricks of her own because when my husband Jamey went in the pen to see the new kids she promptly threatened to bite him! Now normally this would be very bad behavior from a goat but to be honest this is a good sign in a new first time mother like Party. She is normally a very easy going girl but at that moment she had new babies and was just being protective of them.

Party also snorted a warning at the cat, which happened to be D.C, our resident goat greeter. She is a cat that hates worm pills and other cats but she LOVES goats...go figure. D.C the cat is a little bit like that person at Wal-Mart that stands by the carts, she is just there to say hi and thank you for being a goat on our farm! If she had thumbs she would probably pass out smiley face stickers to all the new "kids" too. When Party lowered her head and stamped her feet, D.C. got the hint and went on her way to find another goat to greet. The over-protective behavior of Party will get better as she realizes what is truly a threat to her precious new kids and what isn't but personally I am proud of her! She is going to be a great, protective mother and that always deserves props on our farm!

She's Got Legs

2010-04-22T16:08:00.007-05:00

One of our Boer does Annie finally decided to kid the other day. Annie is one of Trouble's daughters, you can see the family resemblance. I did not have a firm due date on her so I was trying to keep a pretty close eye on her. She had this very pretty 11 lb Boer doeling about 2pm.

The kid sure is a tall, long legged thing, with cute little flips to the bottom of her ears. I think she must have been a model in a past life. She had a surprisingly easy time learning to stand on those long legs and it was not any time until she was hopping around the pen. It will be fun to see how this one grows!

Strike a pose

"See mom, my legs are long but they are strong!"

Oh no! Just born and stalked by the paparazzi already!

Still Waiting...

2010-04-18T22:37:00.006-05:00

It has been a standoff and still no resolution. Five does still have not kidded. I know they have to be close, their udders are full, their tail ligaments are soft and they all look like they have swallowed a beach ball. Nifty's belly is so big she looks like a good hug would pop those kids out. By my calculations they should have kidded this past week. Apparently these last five does have decided they want to stay pregnant forever. I swear they are crossing their legs as soon as I look the other way. I know that my goats know and practice The Doe Code of Honor, but these girls are really pushing it this year.

If the weather is nice I let them kid out naturally in the pasture, though I will often move the new mom and kids to a covered kidding pen, (especially triplets as they tend to be a little smaller) for the first few days because we do have so many hawks and large owls here. Our livestock guardian dogs are very good and they are alert to predators in the air as well as on land but I would rather be safe than sorry. That is usually what I do but to be honest, after so long I got tired of going out to the pasture every few hours to check on these last five hold-outs so I moved them to the backyard where I could more easily keep an eye on them the last few days. It is actually pretty nice because I can see them by looking out the living room window; not that it is doing me any good because every time I look out at them they are just laying there looking right back at me while smacking and chewing their cud defiantly with a goaty smirk on their face and absolutely no signs of labor to see.

I guess I should not be impatient because it is probably my fault. I have spoiled them with tasty alfalfa, chin scratches and treats but my bribes backfired. I reckon they know a good deal when they have it. I guess that is a good reason to hang onto their kids as long as they can, but I know in the end they will bless us with some really nice goat kids that will be well worth the wait...and wait...and just a little bit more waiting.

They so got me wrapped around their little hoof.

Leave it to Hope

2010-04-10T11:05:00.010-05:00

To turn our "buck" year around! She did it again and had two beautiful doelings yesterday, bringing our doe to buck kid ratio up to 7 doelings to 10 bucklings. Hope is one of our Boer does. Her registered name is 5605 RB44, but I did not think that was a very personable name when we got her so I named her Hope. She was named Hope because we bought her near Hope, KS. She is an 88% Boer that was six years old this past December.

Hope is an excellent mother to her kids, a trait that is held in high regard on our farm. She has raised all of her kids herself and in fact the reason she has that funny looking ear that kind of sticks out is because she lost part of her ear a few years ago while protecting her newborn kid from a pushy dog.

Hope is predictable, and I love that about her. She has had twins every year with no health problems or complications, and just to be extra considerate of us she usually has them during the day as well. That Hope, always thinking about others! We don't like to over-work our goat mothers here so we typically only breed them once per year. Hope also holds the farm record for most doe kids born! Now I know it is the buck that determines the sex of the kids so maybe she is just lucky but for some reason Hope has girls...lots of them. Out of the ten beautiful kids she has had, eight of them have been girls! She kept up her predictable pattern again this year by having two more girls with no problems at all.

Her first kid born this year is a pretty 8.5 lb brown and white paint with a large, very square brown patch over her shoulders. Kind of looks like she is wearing a backpack, and we have already started calling her backpack as a means of identifying her from her sister. She is resting near her mom Hope in the picture above after filling her belly with colostrum.

This was the second doeling Hope had yesterday. She was 9.5 lbs at birth and is a very pretty tri-color paint. Her head and neck are red, as is the top of her legs but then it changes to black on her lower legs, her belly is also black. She is really a unique and pretty color. I swore I was not keeping ANY kids this year, we are in fact planning on cutting back on the herd some....but this one sure is tempting to keep. I just think she is so pretty. Jamey probably won't be happy to hear that, he says "half our herd are Hope's daughters". Not that there is anything wrong with that, she has some great kids but I guess he figures we have enough goats with this bloodline.

(Hope without all the scruffy winter hair and pregnancy belly)

It is true that in our herd we currently have four of Hope daughters (actually 6 right now counting the new ones born yesterday) and two granddaughters of Hope. That is actually one of the reasons Hope will forever have a home on our farm. Since her daughters are high enough percentage Boer they can be registered as Purebreds with The American Boer Goat Assoc, she has made a huge contribution to building the Purebred Boer part of our herd through her daughters and granddaughters.

Hope has been such a good goat for us and I think if a goat produces lots of kids for you, is always healthy and never causes any problems for years she has frankly earned a lifelong home, which she will have here on our farm.

In the herd Hope isn't a shrinking violet, she is not that herd wimp that needs me to stand over her food dish and guard it from the other goats for her. She gets in there and stands her ground to any of them. She was disbudded before we bought her but she doesn't let the fact she does not have horns slow her down, she has a perpetual small bald spot on the top of her head from butting heads with the horned goats but she don't back down, yet she isn't a bully either. She has never caused any problems in the herd, and her funny, deep "tug boat" (that is what my husband calls her) almost sheep like BAAA makes me laugh. She likes tums and graham crackers and has quite the personality.

One of my favorite Hope daughters, "Dot" also had her kids just the other day. She doesn't seem to be following her mom's record for having doelings I am afraid. Seems she is trying for the opposite, she has had five kids and so far four of them have been boys! She did finally have a doeling this year, she is the kid in front. They were both only a couple hours old in this picture. She does have her mother's excellent maternal instincts though and has been a great mother to her kids.

I am still waiting on Hope's other daughters, Nifty, Heart & Party to have their kids as well as six other does that are due any day. I hope the beautiful weather that was here for Dot and Hope's births sticks around for the rest of them!

Is Your Family Dog Leading A Double Life?

2010-04-05T22:49:00.014-05:00

Trouble - Dog attack survivor and healthy goat grandma today.

If you are allowing him to run free, especially in rural areas where livestock are nearby he very well may be.

What you are about to read is blunt, and will no doubt anger some dog owners but if a little bluntness and honest reality saves the life of even one dog or farm animal it is worth the few hateful comments I will undoubtedly get from city folk and dog owners. This is a subject that is near to my heart since I lost a much loved goat, one of my first Boer goats in fact and had another one mauled by our neighbor's dogs on our property many years ago before we got our livestock guardian dogs. The mauled goat did survive and is now a healthy and happy 8 year old Goat grandma on our farm. You can read Trouble's story HERE.

Most dog owners don't want to admit that their lovable family pet is capable of the death and destruction of their neighbor's pets, poultry and livestock but too many farmers have proof and facts to the contrary. Farmers, livestock owners and people that love and care about their pet goats, sheep and horses across this country have proof time and time again. Every time they see and bury the mauled and mangled bodies of their beloved animals, or they pay the vet bills and doctor the often horrific wounds your dog caused to their animals needlessly because you chose to let your dog run loose off leash and off your own property.

As more "town folk" move out to the country and see all this space and lack of a dog catcher as a reason to let their dogs run free, those owners need to be educated on the reality that responsible dog ownership does not end at the city limits. Please know that many livestock aggressive dogs are not people aggressive at all, many are friendly family pets.

Dog owners need to be aware that farm animals, such as goats and horses feel pain and fear. Goats can actually be very dog like in personality. They like to have their ears scratched, they get attached to their owners and herd mates.

Can you put yourself in their hooves for just a minute? I can not imagine a more horrific way to die than to be chased and terrorized. To try and run for my life in panic with no where to go, no real chance as my peaceful pasture home becomes a prison with killers on the loose. Killers that are not hungry but are doing it all for the fun of it. To watch my children and family be killed too as my own flesh is ripped and bitten over and over until I can run no more, finally falling to the ground where the relentless killers will continue their agonizing attack on me while I am still alive, bleeding and crying in pain until I finally die in a state of complete fear and terror. Horrific isn't it? That is the horror livestock owners feel when they see their animals strewn dead around the barnyard from a dog attack.

That is what our goats and horses and our other farm animal victims feel when your "pet" dogs come onto our property, into our pastures and barns and kill them. I did not write that to be shocking, but to try and get through to those people that think "oh well it is just a goat, or just a rabbit" that these farm animals are living creatures, with unique personalities and just as capable of affection for their owners as your dog is. They love their babies and herd mates and have just as much right to life as your dog does.

It happens all the time, if you think the numerous links I provided below to videos and news stories about this was over-kill, then consider this is just what I found with a simple ten minute Google search. There are hundreds if not thousands of similar stories and cases of pet dogs injuring and killing livestock. It is not a rare, freak occurrence and it is not a problem caused by just Pit Bulls or Rottweilers.

All dogs, of all sizes and breeds, both male and female, intact and fixed could potentially be a problem for your neighbors and a killer of their chickens, pets or livestock. The only way to assure that they are not is to keep your dog confined to your own property or on a leash. This is much more of a people problem than a dog problem, it is a matter of responsible pet ownership and basic consideration for your neighbors. Too many farm animals have lost their lives because of thoughtless, irresponsible people whose pet dogs lead a double life of loving family pet at home and destructive killer in their neighbors barnyards and chicken coops.

More Information:

Dog Law - Injury to Livestock - Quoted from link: "The two cardinal rules, which apply almost everywhere, are: 1. A livestock owner is free to kill a dog that is killing, wounding, chasing, worrying, harassing, or attacking livestock. 2. A dog's owner or keeper is financially liable for any livestock damage the dog causes."

How to Differentiate Between Coyote and Dog Kills

Dog Laws & Liability When Dogs Worry Livestock (A Must Read For Dog Owners)

DNA Pet Detectives - Now DNA can be used to find canine killers of expensive pets or livestock.

UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory

In The News - Family Dog Fido Attacks On Livestock Is A Common Occurrence.
Family Dogs Terrorize Sheep

15 Sheep Injured in Dog Attack

Pet Dogs Attack Donkeys

Small Dogs Endanger Livestock Too

Woman Ordered To Pay $9,771 After Her Two Dogs Attack Sheep & Goats

Videos (mostly news reports) about domestic dog attacks on horses and livestock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfNYBsTHOmE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA0uonRlo9E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soGbfmZM-Zc&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO_lCT1HgzQ&feature=related

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Message To Dog Owners

* ***I did not write the letter below. I came across this letter while researching dog vs livestock laws in my state. It is reprinted with the author's permission and while she asked to remain anonymous (She cited not wanting to deal with the angry reaction of dog owners as a reason) she had the same feelings I do that it is important to educate dog owners on this issue. As someone who has lost a goat and had another mauled by our neighbors dogs on our property (before we got our livestock guardian dogs) this is an issue I feel strongly enough about to display this well written and to the point article on my website/ blog. It IS blunt but frankly I think some dog owners need to hear it that way. ***

The most common predatory killers of livestock are domestic dogs. Even your sweet family pet can wander off to play, start chasing, then biting, and then instincts kick in that you might be too naive to believe your dog has. Unfortunately, your naivety and denial won't save the livestock your dog harms. Livestock owners know this and many will shoot your dog and you'll never even know what happened to it. But don't blame the owners of the livestock, they are merely protecting their beloved animals from a killer you chose to leave on the loose.

Not only do dogs tear up livestock and cause incredible pain and suffering to them, they can "stress" certain types to death just by "running" them. They can chase them into, through, or over fences where they can become tangled in fencing, or hit by cars. "Running" stock can also cause abortion or early births which result in heartache over the loss of babies and dams due to complications. Some livestock is prone to heat stress, and "running" them can cause death from that too. You can be held financially responsible for the monetary losses your dog inflicts.

The reason people buy property and fence it to to keep their livestock in. It is your responsibility to keep your dogs out of their pastures, off their property, and on your own property. Many areas have leash laws and you can be fined. Many insurance companies will cancel your homeowners insurance if complaints are made about your dogs. (And it's a piece of cake for livestock owners to find out who your insurer is.) Once your home owner's insurance is cancelled for that reason, you'll find great difficulty finding another that will be willing to insure you. If you have a mortgage on your home you have to be insured, so you'll have further problems to deal with. And if your dogs are caught doing damage, you can (and probably will) be sued for damages.

If you love your dogs you need to be a responsible dog owner. No one cares what your opinion is about what your dogs will or won't do. Too many livestock owners have FACTS about what dogs will do and are tired of the horror and heartache of dog massacres inflicted on their beloved livestock.

You need to be aware that they care about their livestock as much as you care about your dog. In fact they obviously care more, since they aren't leaving their stock running loose to be hit by cars or harm others property, as you are doing if your dog is running off your property.

Why any dog owner feels they have the right to put others livestock at risk is beyond me. It is the height of disrespectful animal ownership, and shows a total disregard for the rights of others, or any concern at all for their livestock. If you act that way, why be surprised if your dog gets shot? The sad part is both the dog and the livestock would be safe and happy if dog owner would act responsibly.

So if you are a dog owner, the problem or solution starts with you. Contain your dogs on your own property, unless you have them on a leash or in public areas created specifically for letting dogs run. ESPECIALLY if you live anywhere near other people with livestock. It's 2002, not 1500, and other people have rights too. If you can't be compassionate or mature enough to care about the welfare of others animals, at least show enough care for your own dog not to let it be at risk.

If a neighbor has ever had to speak to you about your dogs being on their farm, or running their stock, you are causing major upset in their lives and creating trouble. You may be mindlessly unconcerned, but they obviously aren't. You are risking their stock that they care about and have money invested in. That is not within your rights to do - neither legally nor morally. Apologize immediately, and make *certain* your dog does not leave your property "unrestrained" again.

*Anonymous*

To Be So Agile

2010-04-05T01:25:00.004-05:00

If only we could all be as agile as a goat.

A Patient Rock

2010-03-30T00:44:00.008-05:00

This kid is determined to be able to lay down on her mother's back but things don't quite work out. Watch both videos to see the really funny parts. The very patient mother goat in the video is our own Miss "Painted Rock", or Rock as we call her. You can see a much better quality video of her here. Or watch all of our farm videos here.

This actually went on much longer than the videos show and in the beginning BOTH of her kids were using their mother's back as a launching platform to jump off of, then they would run around and jump back up on her back again, that went on for quite awhile before this kid decided mom's back would really make a comfortable place to lie down...if only it just wasn't so round and hard to balance on!

I hope you enjoyed the videos, though I must apologize for the REALLY terrible quality of them. The reason they are so bad is because the zoom on the camera was used (really bad idea I know now) because this mother goat and her kids were a ways away from the house but I knew if I went out there and tried to get closer the kid would stop what she was doing and run up to me. How did I know this? Because I have been TRYING to get some pictures of this batch of kids that was born in late February and early March for some time but every time I walk outdoors with the camera...this is what happens.

"Whatcha doing? Is that little, silver thing something to eat you are carrying there?" "No it isn't? How about I just chew on your hair then while I jump and climb all over you so you take really close up pictures of my eyeball. "

"Ha! I saw you trying to take a picture of me while I was standing over there, so I ran up to you really fast so you could get a good close up picture of my forehead instead. Did it turn out?"

I finally realized the only way to get far enough away from these kids to actually get a picture of them was to give them someone else to climb all over, so I threw Jamey to the goats. I think they had a secret agenda though, the kids would weigh Jamey's feet down so Belle, one of the mom goats can sneak in and grab the feed bucket.

Been Away on an Island

2010-03-27T10:06:00.019-05:00

I am back, sort of. In case anyone has been wondering where I have been, well I have been on vacation on Sosickwanadie Island. What an experience that was! Half comatose under a blanket with a vintage bottle of Robitussin by the snow white Kleenex beaches and warm salt water gargle rinses. Oh the smell of the sick air was delightful! Yes, it wasn't that long ago that I DID take a trip to Feelkindayucky resort, but that was more like a weekend distraction, no big deal. The kind of trip you can work around your day schedule if need be, but Sosickwanadie Island was a week long excursion! Hey, a girl has got to treat herself sometimes you know?

There was no time for my usual schedule there though. I was entirely too busy with the Island's various activities, such as Olympic style coughing. That will really get the old rib cage in shape..I can still feel the burn! Don't worry the fresh underwear are always complimentary at Sosickwanadie Island. Then I worked up a different kind of sweat at club Fever! I will admit, I did have too many Echinacea shots and Theraflu mixed drinks while I was there, but I was on vacation! I am back now though, a little bit of the Island still clings to my lungs and soul, but I know it will all fade away soon and my life will be back to its routine.

So you want to know how to get a reservation on Sosickwanadie Island? Well, you typically need to be invited, my darling little baby nephew Tracy invited me but it is by no means an exclusive club. He also invited his mom (my sister) and his Grandmother to Sosickwanadie Island. Regular little Typhoid Mary in Pampers that baby, such a giver. Maybe someone close to you will be so thoughtful as to invite you to Sosickwanadie Island someday, just make sure you have plenty of free time! It is going to be a LONG vacation.

PS. Tracy is doing fine, he is all better himself and is back to the land of cute gummy smiles and adorable baby giggles and his aunt loves him very much.

Spring Begins

2010-03-20T20:13:00.004-05:00

That is what my calendar says on it today. Yep..the official start of spring and green grass, cheerful flowers, warm days and all that good stuff.

Apparently my calendar is a big, fat liar because these pictures were taken earlier today. The poor robins huddled under the eaves outside my kitchen window agree with me. This is not Spring. Did I wake up in Maine? What happened to global warming? Will I get to make an Easter snowman this year? I can't be too grumpy about it, I mean after all how often do we get over 8 inches of snow (so far!) on the 20Th of March? Not that I can ever remember! Happy Spring y'all!

Crazy Kansas Weather

2010-03-19T21:00:00.006-05:00

My Grandmother used to like to say "If you don't like the weather in Kansas....wait five minutes and it will change". Boy was she ever right about that! Today was just beautiful, perfect short sleeve weather, it was sunny and warm. I even had to turn the ceiling fans on in the house. Ahh...Spring is FINALLY here, or is it? Apparently old man winter is still determined to have the last word on that.

Issued by The National Weather Service
Wichita, KS
3:39 pm CDT, Fri., Mar. 19, 2010

... WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM SATURDAY TO 1 PM CDT SUNDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN WICHITA HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR SIGNIFICANT WINTER WEATHER... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM SATURDAY TO 1 PM CDT SUNDAY.

* TIMING... RAIN WILL DEVELOP THIS EVENING... AND IS EXPECTED TO CHANGE TO SNOW DURING THE EARLY MORNING HOURS ON SATURDAY. THIS TRANSITION COULD BE MARKED A PERIOD OF SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN LATE TONIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING. A PERIOD OF HEAVY SNOW IS EXPECTED ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON INTO SATURDAY EVENING.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS... OF 5 TO 8 INCHES ARE EXPECTED BY EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS TO NEAR 10 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE.

Are you kidding me? Eight inches of snow? Really? Oh come on! It was probably 70 degrees today! On the positive side this is one time procrastination actually worked in my favor. All of this beautiful weather lately really tempted me to put some plants out in the garden. I am glad I waited on that!

It looks like the three bottle kids I have in the house won't be going outside this weekend! They were just born and I was going to put them out in a stall as soon as I got them started on a bottle good. One of my does had a difficult time with these three boys. (yes they were all three boys!) All three are perfectly healthy and doing well but mom is recovering and could not raise them herself. Just when things were going so well. So now I have three new bottle baby goats in the house. I guess when it rains..it snows!

(Sorry no picture! My camera just does not take good pictures in the house but trust me they are CUTE!)

Spring, is that you?

2010-03-09T18:09:00.007-06:00

Could it be? I saw a bee the other day but I wasn't sure after such a long cold winter if I could really believe Spring was finally on the way or not, but what do we have here? Green grass! It gets better than bees and green grass though, the weather was gorgeous this past weekend! It was so nice to go outdoors in the sunshine. Time to start thinking about the garden, gosh I haven't even started any seeds yet!

Two New Kids Rest After A Long Day of Play

Springtime also means new goat kids! So far we have had 8 new goat babies born on the farm the last few weeks with one more doe to kid this month and a dozen more does due to kid in April. The cute and entertaining new babies on the farm are only one of the reasons I love Spring so much. It is the time of year when everything seems to be coming to life. The grass comes back, the trees bud, the farm animals have their babies, it is a time of new beginnings on the farm and I love that.

Young Boer Buckling

The kids have been a wide variety of colors so far this year, we have got two black headed Boer kids, two red headed ones, a blonde boy, two red siblings and a black percentage Boer doeling with white ears.

Who are you?

Heart the Boer doe meets one of the new kids for the first time. There is a fence between them because we are keeping the newborn baby goats in a smaller lot with their moms due to the weather until they are a few days older. This little guy is about ready to go out in the big pasture with the rest of the herd, along with his mother of course. Heart will have her own babies in April. If the weather is nice in April, experienced mom does like Heart will likely kid out in the pasture since we try to keep things as natural as possible. Our does are great moms, we try to be there in case help is needed but also stay out of their way and not interfere when things go normally, as they usually do.

Has Spring shown up where you live yet?

A Kid's Point of View - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-03-04T00:38:00.007-06:00

A couple of the newborn Boer goat kids born this week.

New Kids Update

2010-02-27T23:35:00.006-06:00

Penny and Belle have finally kidded! We now have four new goat kids on the farm, two bucklings and two doelings. Penny is a Boer / Nubian cross, she has always milked well but judging from her large udder I think we will have plenty of milk this year. Penny is usually very well behaved on the milk stand but her udder was so full we milked a little out this evening because her kids are not keeping up with it at all.

I say we because it took both my husband and I to get the job done today. The always very well behaved and easy to milk Penny did not appreciate us "stealing" any of her precious, new kid's milk! She wagged her tail, she kicked, she side-stepped and twisted but she did eventually settle down and was fine after that. I think after she realized she was much more comfortable with some of that full udder relieved she was glad to be milked. Her kids had an easier time nursing after that too without her udder being so tight.

I am still watching Cookie, Rock and Blackberry because they are due anytime as well. After those does then we should get a break until April when the rest of the goats will be due to kid.

Magazine Giveaway Winner

2010-02-26T01:58:00.004-06:00

Congratulations Dogsmom! I will be contacting you so I know where to have your free subscription to Mother Earth News magazine sent! Thank you very much to every person that entered. It was a lot of fun so I think we will do something like this again someday.

Sorry for the Delay

2010-02-24T22:47:00.007-06:00

You ever had one of those days where nothing seems to go right? Today was one of those days for me it seems. Today was supposed to be the day we would draw the name of the winner for the Mother Earth News Magazine giveaway but I am afraid it will have to wait until tomorrow. To start with my Internet was not working all day. Finally late this evening it started working again and with some effort I got my husband to stop doing other things long enough to draw a name which I was going to make a short video of and post here as the announcement. Before he could draw the winner though I found out the batteries on my camera were dead! Honestly, I can't make this stuff up.

Soooo...the winner will be drawn tomorrow, providing nothing else goes wrong! The giveaway deadline has passed but if you did not get a chance to enter don't worry, this one has been so much fun I think we will have another blog giveaway at some point in the future.

In other news the two does that I thought for sure would have kidded yesterday are still holding onto their kids. The cold weather we have had lately makes it necessary to check on them often during the cold nights, even though they are stalled out of the weather. So I have been setting my alarm, putting on my shoes and braving the icy night air to check on the expectant goat moms, but no new kids yet. They certainly seem to be following true to the Doe Code of Honor this year!

This morning I had my alarm set so I could check them but about twenty minutes before it could go off I was startled awake by expectant goat mom Penny yelling. I jumped up, sure she was finally kidding and took the kidding kit with me only to find she apparently only wanted more hay. Once I got her the extra hay she demanded she was happy again, so why wouldn't she hold onto those kids as long as she can. She has it made with her very own human servant to cater to her every whim. I am happy to do that but I do hope they kid soon, at least before I get too sleep deprived. If you are unfamiliar with the Doe Code of Honor you can read about it HERE.

Who Me? - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-02-22T02:16:00.007-06:00

"No, it wasn't me that ate the last of the molasses protein tub, it must have been someone else."

Yes Belle, that is the sticky face of an innocent goat...sure.

Time is almost up to enter the Mother Earth News magazine subscription giveaway! Go HERE to enter for a chance to win.

Long Faces on the Farm

2010-02-17T00:15:00.005-06:00

There are now a couple new faces on the farm. My sister's two geldings, Cloud and Justin. My sister had moved up near Topeka not two years earlier and had taken her two horses with her. We all know life has its ups and downs, some times you think you are on the right road, only to find that road is too rough and never does lead where you want it to go. So sometimes we have to backtrack and start over on a different path but my sister did pick up a special souvenir for her troubles.

Extracting oneself from a toxic relationship is tricky enough but when you have a new baby and two horses in tow it can become quite the tangled web indeed. My sister asked me if she could put her two horses on our farm and if we would care for them. It is just about impossible to find a pasture to rent for horses in this area, so I told her we could do that. This would not be a simple task, because many obstacles stood in the way. Her horses were three hours away and neither of us owned a trailer they would load into. The first issue to deal with was the fact we did not have an extra, adequate shed for them because all of the shelters on the farm were being used for our own animals.

There was an old shed that had originally been built 13 years ago when we first moved to the farm. It was built with salvaged materials even back then so the wood was not in good shape. The corner posts and many of the boards were no good anymore. What time and weather did not destroy, the wood bees had finished off. Luckily, most of the metal siding was still in reasonable shape and could be salvaged. The shed would have to be rebuilt and we were well into winter by this time, all we could do was pray the weather would hold out until we could get it done.

The shed was not the only thing that needed to get done, we would have to build a large pen as well. The reason for this is one of my sister's horses will not stay in an electric fence at all and of course what type of fence is all of our pastures? Electric of course! It has worked for the goats, but apparently not for Cloud the horse. The plan was to divide the shed in half so both horses could use it. This way we could let the horse without a personal vendetta against all electric fencing be out in the pasture and the other one would have his own large pen made out of new cattle panels. We would upgrade the size of his pen to a small pasture later on, but money and time was running short, we had to get it done before we were hit with snow and weather that would prevent us from moving the horses at all.

The rebuild of the shed was under way, and the weather was not cooperating. The wind was sharp and we were trying to beat the weatherman's prediction of snow. Any person who has ever hit their thumb with a hammer in below freezing weather knows it is no fun to work on such projects in the winter time but it had to get done. Bless my husband's heart, he put the most work into it and he was working on it right up until we unloaded the horses.

That in itself was probably the biggest challenge of getting her horses moved back home. The Ex had access to a trailer, in fact he had moved them up there. To say he was not so willing to move them back would be an understatement. Things had happened that had all of us concerned about the safety of her horses while they were up there and the relationship was falling apart. I did not want them to become collateral damage in all of this.

My sister and I both had been working hard at trying to find someone willing to haul the horses home or a stock trailer we could rent. I can not begin to recount the number of people I called or emailed, trying to find someone willing to help. We were not looking for a free ride by any means, yet nobody seemed willing to help. There were many people that haul their own animals all over the place, to shows and such that did not even return my email.

I felt sorry for my sister, she was stressed to the max. She certainly had a lot on her plate with her new baby and this messy break up. I don't expect charity from anyone and I really hate to ask for help but sometimes we all do need a helping hand. I was a little surprised, given the situation and our clear desperation that up to that point only one guy had been willing to haul them and his exorbitant fee had all the sympathy of a mafia shakedown.

I sent out more emails, not really expecting anything back. I asked all the farmers and ranchers I knew if they had a stock trailer we could rent or if they knew of anyone who did.

One of those emails was to Meredith, the owner of Capering Valley Nubians, who is the breeder of our buck Pepper and many other fine dairy goats. I knew she had a gooseneck trailer that would not work with our truck but I was hoping she would know someone with a bumper pull trailer.

She emailed me back and said she knew someone with a trailer but it was all open and by then it was just too cold to haul them in that. She went on to say if we could not find one she would be willing to haul them. This was unexpected, though I should not have been surprised because Meredith is a very nice and generous person. This was no small favor, it was about a six hour round trip and she didn't even know my sister but Meredith said she knew what it was like to need a helping hand. I already had a great deal of respect for the fine dairy goats that she raises but it certainly gave me a whole new respect for her as a person. I felt a lot less cynical, knowing that the "good neighbor" is not dead in our society after all.

We waited for a sunny day and Meredith, my sister and I headed up to go get the horses. It was a long trip, made even longer by the fact my back picked that day of all days to give me all kinds of problems but despite the pain I was in, it was also fun for me to be able to talk with someone who enjoys talking about goats as much as I do.

I had only seen Justin in pictures but Cloud has been in the family for 2o years, first as a shared horse between my sister and I in our teenage years and now as my sister's horse. When we got there, Cloud didn't want to get into the trailer, which was a surprise because he has always been easy to load in a stock trailer but eventually he did get in. Then on the way home one of the truck tires started to leak air and we had to make a stop at Wal-Mart to get it fixed where they continued to not impress me with the speed and efficiency of their auto department. This made us not able to get home until after dark, where Jamey was finishing up the shed and pen. Since it was a strange, new place for them we put both horses in the pen for the night.

Cloud and Justin are very bonded with each other and Cloud gets particularly upset if they are separated. They are Mutt and Jeff, Cloud being the tall, lanky one and Justin his short, stocky counterpart. They are both Appaloosas, something that is easy to see in Cloud with his loud spotted coat but Justin looks more like a Quarter Horse in appearance.

My sister lead Justin around and showed him the fences so he would know where they were when we turned him out in the pasture. The boards are a temporary gate on Cloud's pen until we can get one put in. Cloud did not like Justin being led away and started to call and run around his pen.We tied Cloud up while Justin was being led around the pasture to help keep him calm but he kept his eye on Justin. One eye is all he could keep on him because Cloud does have a cataract which causes him vision problems in one eye, but at 24 years old surgery is not a good option for him. He did calm down and has begun to adjust to Justin being outside of his pen, though he is still most happy when his buddy Justin is near and doesn't wander too far from him.

Justin is much younger than Cloud. He can be a little jumpy and he is rather spirited. My husband calls him Forrest Gump because every where he goes he is "running". I didn't tell my sister that though, she doesn't always appreciate his sense of humor. They are both quite different than my old mare Lakota who was so calm and easy going; she never got herself into trouble. Neither my husband or I ride anymore so she was just a big pasture pet but unfortunately we lost Lakota to cancer. I have missed her, so it is nice to see horses on the farm again. It has been quite the adventure so far having them here and I will write more about that later but they are here, we were able to get them home with a lot of work and the help of a generous person.

If you are someone who is looking for a nice Nubian dairy goat in southeast Kansas you should check out Meredith's website at http://www.freewebs.com/caperingvalleynubians/

Only One Week Left!

2010-02-16T22:45:00.009-06:00

Just a reminder that there is only one week left to enter our blog giveaway for a chance to win a free subscription to Mother Earth News Magazine! This contest is open to any reader with a US or Canadian address but it ends on Tuesday February 23, 2010 at 11:59 PM. Central time. To enter, simply click HERE and it will take you to the Giveaway. At the end of that post where it says "comments" click to leave a comment, then tell me you would like to be entered in the giveaway for a chance to win, it is that simple. You can get additional entries into the giveaway by posting about it on your blog, Facebook page or Twitter. Thanks to everyone who has entered so far!

When will it End?

2010-02-11T18:54:00.016-06:00

When I first heard that Monsanto at one time was trying to put a patent on pigs I thought it was a joke. Apparently, it wasn't a joke at all. This video brings the plan to patent the pig or at least pigs with certain genes to light. I would highly encourage people to watch the video and learn more about the corporations that control much of the food people eat.

Monsanto who apparently gets so much bad press and criticism they have an entire section of their website called "for the record" dedicated to slippery explanations for their policies and actions (such as their lawsuits against farmers, but that is another can of worms which they would probably try to patent in some way...if there was money in worms that is.) have this statement about their pig patent on their website. It says that Monsanto sold all their swine related patents, patent applications and other related intellectual property to Newsham Genetics LC of West Des Moines, Iowa in November of 2007.

According to a 2007 article on the Porkmag.com website "as part of the agreement, the two companies have established a three-year research alliance. It will focus on technology and the genomics platform to maximize the value created in the industry from these tools".

“We’re pleased Newsham Genetics is acquiring this business and will continue to advance the genomic and marker technology platform for the swine industry,” says Kevin Holloway, president of Monsanto’s animal agriculture unit. “The research alliance illustrates that Newsham is committed to continuing genomic research and harvesting the rich pipeline that Monsanto Choice Genetics has developed.”

I am no expert, fact is I never owned a pig in my life. I am just a concerned goat farmer who thinks we should all be aware and concerned about these sort of things. It sounds to me like different owner, same problem. That problem is that when powerful corporations try to patent living animals for big profits and even more control over the food that we eat, they only ask if they can... never if they should. What will be next, sheep...goats? So we all should be asking; when will it end and what are we going to do about it?

Contact Elected Officials
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Organic Consumers Association
http://www.organicconsumers.org/

This is my personal blog...and its written words are my opinions.

Smile! - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-02-08T00:40:00.003-06:00

Smile, it makes people wonder what you’ve been up to.

Cold Frosty Morning

2010-02-04T22:30:00.013-06:00

Some pictures from a frosty morning on the farm. I have never seen frost quite like this before. How kind of this black goat to stand there so the frost would show up so much better!

Naked, grey winter trees are made beautiful.

Winter beauty.

Frosty fence and the goats just want their morning feed.

An old falling down eyesore gets a moment of beauty before she is torn down in the spring. Hopefully we will be able to salvage some barn lumber and she can continue to live on through birdhouses and picture frames.
Pictures can be made larger by clicking on them.

Don't forget to go HERE and enter our blog giveaway for a chance to win a magazine subscription to Mother Earth News.

200 Posts and a Giveaway!

2010-02-01T23:20:00.019-06:00

Hello and welcome to my 200th blog post! It sure does not seem like I have been writing on this blog for just a couple months shy of two years! It feels like just yesterday that I wrote the very first post to this blog. Time sure does seem to fly by in a blink of an eye doesn't it?

The last two years has had its ups and downs. In some ways life has been tough and sad the last couple years. The hay was short and I said goodbye to an old friend and guardian angel. I also got to be an aunt, seen lots of beautiful new baby goats born, met wonderful people, made new friends, helped family, learned new things thanks in part to the great blogs that I follow, harvested our own garden vegetables and I have been blessed to wake up every day on this farm and living the dream I have always dreamed of the beauty and peace of country life with my wonderful husband.

My goals for the next two years is to live a more frugal life. To get back to basics, save and be more self-sufficient on the farm and in my life. I know that the last few years has been tough for a lot of people so I bet this is a common goal for many families right now. So I have decided to do something you can get big, open mouth, puppy dog smiles happy about.

I am going to give away a free one year gift subscription of Mother Earth News magazine to a lucky reader of my blog. It is six issues of a magazine that has articles and information that would be helpful to any person, especially anyone interested in homesteading, DIY projects, raising their own vegetables or just living a more sustainable life.

Now pay attention because the important instructions on how to enter for a chance to win are below.

In order to enter the Giveaway just leave a comment on this post saying you want to be entered in the contest for a chance to win for one entry.

If you don't have a blogger or other account you can still enter. Just leave a comment under "anonymous" and leave your email in your comment so I can reach you if you win.

You can also get extra entries by doing the following:

Blog about this contest on your blog or site for an extra entry. Please leave a link to it here.
Or/And tell about it on Facebook for one more entry.
Or/And Twitter it for one more entry.
Or/And Stumble it for one more entry.

So it is possible to have up to 5 entries in this contest by doing the above listed things but to get those extra entries, you MUST leave a comment on this post with a link to your post on your blog about this giveaway to get your extra entry. You must also let me know if you did any of the other things listed above so I will know how many entries to give you credit for. Otherwise I won't know to give them to you. I don't want anyone to miss an extra entry that they should have gotten because I never knew about it.

You might notice that I am not giving an extra entry for following my blog using the followers widget on the side over there. It isn't because I don't care about followers, I do and I greatly appreciate every single person that does take the time to follow my corny, little caprine corner of the blogosphere here but I want people to follow my blog because they find it interesting or funny or they just can't get enough of Peeps the lap goat and the rest of the goaty gang here on our farm, if that makes sense. I want to say thank you to every person that does follow this blog or takes the time to leave a comment, it really does make my day.

This contest is open to any reader with a US or Canadian address. The giveaway starts Tuesday February 2, 2010 and will be open until Tuesday February 23, 2010 at 11:59 PM. Central time. My impartial husband who doesn't read his wife's blog (terrible isn't it?) will draw one name and the winner will be announced on February 24th.

In other unrelated news, Pepper the goat that broke his leg a couple weeks ago while trying to jump a fence is doing well. He had a follow-up appointment with the vet and the doctor said things look good so far and he should heal well. Thank you to every person that left comments and asked about him. Things are looking good for him!

An Unlucky Break

2010-01-22T05:11:00.019-06:00

I don't know what got into Pepper a few nights ago. A young Nubian buckling, he seemed to go from cute bottle baby to hormone driven horn dog over night. Lately he has been spending a lot of time at the gate to the doe pasture, tongue hanging out, pawing the ground and trying to convince the girls that he is mature beyond his young age and boyish good looks. I knew his adolescent buck hormones had driven him goofy when I caught him trying to romance an overturned bucket in the backyard one day but neither my husband or I expected him to do what he did the other night.

Pepper has a routine, it is the same one he has had for months. Since he is too young to go out with the big Boer bucks but obviously too mature to go out with the doelings he has had the run of the backyard during the day and we shut him in his pen at night to keep him safe; though that seems ironic now.

My husband had just shut him in his pen for the night when out of the blue Pepper decided he was going to jump the cattle panel fence that his pen is made out of. He almost made it over, almost. Neither one of us seen him jump, Jamey was walking away from the pen when he heard Pepper let out a yell and the cattle panel shaking. He ran back to the pen in a matter of seconds to find Pepper hanging from his back leg and he quickly lifted him down and set him on the ground outside of his pen but it was too late. I did not see this happen but I knew it was bad when I heard Jamey bellow out a string of cuss words that didn't quite hide the break in his voice. I calmed Jamey down but Pepper didn't need calmed down. He was back over at the gate to the doe pasture again standing on three legs and trying to romance the does on the other side like he didn't even know he was hurt.

I knew the second I looked at his leg he was though, it dangled at an impossible angle for any intact bone. It was not a pleasant thing to see but at least luckily it was not a compound fracture. This was 10pm and I knew we would not get a vet out that night. We would have to splint it and take him to the vet first thing in the morning. In the almost eight years we have raised goats I have seen and treated a lot of different things but this was the first broken bone that needed splinting. I cleared off a table and we brought Pepper in the house and gave him a shot of Banamine for pain and inflammation.

Then we gathered up what materials we had knowing that we did not need something long term but just something to get him through the night until we took him to the vet first thing the next morning. I would have preferred to have a lighter weight PVC pipe cut lengthwise in two to use but we had to make do with some slightly curved trim boards cut to length. We also had scissors, cloth for padding (cotton or gauze wrap would have worked much better) vet wrap and tape. The cotton balls were there for extra padding if needed, though we didn't end up using them.

This was definitely a two person job even with a young goat like Pepper. We laid him on his side on the table with the broke leg up. It was easy to determine that it was his cannon bone that was broken. Carefully aligning his leg straight it was then wrapped snugly with cloth padding and taped. Then the two boards were positioned on each side of his broken leg and slightly past his hoof so that his weight would be on the boards and not his hoof and that was taped. Then we wrapped his leg with vet wrap starting at the bottom and working up, being careful to keep the vet wrap smooth and snug but not too tight as to impair circulation. His toes were left exposed to air so I could check them for swelling periodically. It just had to get him through the night. Pepper was then put in a small room until morning to keep him from getting any more ideas about jumping or running on his leg.

First thing the next morning as soon as the vet clinic opened we loaded Pepper in the car and drove him to town. He rode the whole way in the backseat with his head laying between the front seats to be close to us. The picture below is Jamey and Pepper outside the vet clinic. In this picture it looks like Pepper's whole foot is sticking out of the splint but that is actually his other leg. It is important the splint goes slightly past their hoof so they are walking on it and not their broken leg.

Pepper was very well behaved in the waiting room at the vet clinic. He was the center of attention, being such a charming goat in the waiting room. He visited and made friends with everyone. Though he didn't much care for being held to get his leg X-rayed. The receptionist thought he yelled like a woman but I didn't tell Pepper what she said.

After the X-rays were taken it was back out to the waiting room again to wait for a little bit but as long as he was getting lots of attention and nobody was holding him down on any tables, Pepper didn't mind.

It wasn't too long until we got to go back and look at his X-rays to see his broken bone. The vet said we did a good job aligning it when we splinted it. He was going to just leave the splint we had on him because he said he couldn't align it any better than we had it, but we all felt like it needed just a little more padding since we didn't have any cotton padding and had to make do with a washcloth. So they kept Pepper at the vet's office for awhile and put a new splint on his leg with more padding. Then they called us to come pick him up.

We brought Pepper home and put him in a small stall so his leg can heal. He has another follow-up appointment with the vet in a week. He will most likely be wearing a splint for six weeks. Poor Pepper, but he is getting lots of TLC and treats to keep his spirits up while he recovers. I am certainly praying that his leg heals well and he can get back to his old antics soon. Minus any fence jumping of course.

Rhino and Goat Make Friends

2010-01-18T02:14:00.004-06:00

Thank you to all that left comments concerning my computer woes. For now it seems our Internet service may be running a little bit better. It seems to come and go. The seed catalogs have arrived in the mail! It might seem far off right now but Spring will be here before we know it.

Computer Problems

2010-01-15T02:00:00.012-06:00

Is the reason I have not posted the last week. Actually that is not true, my computer is fine but our Internet service is having some problems. It is running slow and when I say slow I mean molasses in Alaska slow, or how my sister drives slow or maybe just play a game of solitaire, fix a drink, thumb through a magazine and then pull your hair out while waiting on one page to load slow. No, it has been worse than that, it has been running "ready to go back to dial-up" slow!

I am hoping we can get it fixed soon because there are lots of things I would like to tell you about. The new guests at the farm, (no it isn't another opossum) or how some of our expectant mother goats are starting to show, there has been the buck goat drama, spring garden plans, and a few other ideas I have for our farm and this blog and hopefully a giveaway too. I also miss the blogs I follow and can't wait to be able to catch up with them as well. I hope everyone is doing well and 2010 is off to a great start for all! I would have posted a picture but honestly as long as it would take to load right now I just don't have that much patience or hair.

Playing Possum

2010-01-08T02:57:00.014-06:00

So for weeks I had been trying to figure out why our two mostly outdoor cats D.C. and Lily were not gaining any weight. They were not overly skinny but they both seemed to have lost weight and the way they were going through cat food you would think I was feeding two Bengal tigers. Every day I would fill up their cat food dish clear to the top with cat food, setting it carefully at the bottom of the front steps where the cats would know where it was and by the next morning it was always empty, completely licked clean.

So I started filling up their food dish twice a day and still they did not gain any weight. "These cats must have a tapeworm to be able to eat so much and never gain a pound" I thought! So I dewormed them, which involved giving them pills and I make it a habit never to give a cat a pill if I can help it because frankly I have enough scars thank you very much.

First I tried to hide the worm pill in some wet cat food, which they both gobbled every speck of food up except for the perfectly licked clean worm pill sitting in the bottom of their empty dish. How do they know? So for the 2nd round I crept up to Lily with worm pill in hand as I mustered up some courage and tried the sneak approach. Pet..pet...nice kitty...oh let me rub your chin...and shove this pill in your mouth. I measured my success by the disappearance of that dang pill down her throat and not the blood then dripping from my hand.

One cat down, I decided a different approach was needed. So I got a large towel out of the closet and laid D.C. down on it, quickly wrapping her up like a very angry burrito. This worked much better and there was less blood involved. Of course I might be speaking too soon because cats don't handle humiliation very well. Judging by the angry flip of her tail and the vengeance in her eyes when I was done I am sure that cat will have it in for me for quite some time. She is probably crouched under a chair right now just waiting for me to walk by in bare feet for some payback.

Even after the whole worming pill fiasco they still did not gain any weight. I found my answer one day when I happened to hear some loud and obnoxious crunching coming from outside my front door. I opened the door to find a rather fat opossum, pointy nose buried in the cat's food just chowing away. He was kind of a cute fellow, in a rat on steroids sort of way but it was time to move the cat food dish!

Opossums can carry diseases I don't want him sharing with my cats. They are also not good animals to have hanging around as I have heard they will kill chickens and besides nobody likes a free loader. So from now on the piggy possum will have to find his own food. Since finding out where all the cat food was going and fixing the problem I am happy to say the cats have gained weight and are looking good again, not to mention we are going through a lot less cat food these days!

*Edited to add - The opossum was not harmed in any way, I merely took away his free buffet of cat food so he would move on and forage for his own food further from our home and in the woods as nature intended. I now feed the cats where opossums can not get to their food.

Snow Buddies - Farm Photo of the Week

2010-01-05T23:49:00.003-06:00

This picture was taken a couple winters ago when Bayla, one of our livestock guardian dogs was a puppy. She has always been a good friend to the goats, as they are to her.

The Reason Birds Fly South

2010-01-04T01:55:00.005-06:00

Is the same reason I slept in my coat last night. No that isn't true, birds fly south because they are smart. I slept in my coat because I am not smart, or at least not smart enough to keep a closer eye on our propane. It had not been that long since it was checked but I should have known it would not last long at all with the kind of bitterly cold temperatures we have had here the last week or so.

Sitting at 0% propane on a Saturday night when it is 10 degrees outside and snowing is not a good place to be. I sure was wishing we would have bought a wood heater like we had planned on, but never seemed to have the money for this past year. Luckily, we did have a kerosene heater but no kerosene for it. Since none of the gas stations around here carry it, a late run to Wal-mart in the falling snow was the only option left. Luckily they do carry Kerosene in their camping department and they must be quite proud of this too because they charged an arm and a leg for it but I guess that is better than losing them to frostbite.

As long as I kept my coat on the heater actually kept our living room pretty comfortable, so that is where both my husband and I slept last night. Of course since the heater ONLY heated one room, comfortable is NOT what the toilet seat was this morning. Brrr!!

I am very grateful to Beard Propane in Erie for bringing out propane to us on a Sunday! I have also started a weekly to-do list and "check the propane" is on it. It is a good thing too because there is nothing but cold in the forecast with a predicted low of -4 Thursday night with the possibility of even more snow.

I haven't forgotten about the animals, they have shelter and a thick layer of bedding. Frost free water buckets and stock tank de-icers make sure that everyone has water available too. The goats have hardly left their shelters since the snow fell. They do venture out and walk a single file path up to the feed pen to get some grain each day but afterwards it is straight back to their shelters they go. It is important to keep a close eye on them in this kind of weather and make sure they always have water and hay.

Tarps and blankets have been hung on the front of the sheds to block even more wind and cold out. The picture is of Dym the nubian and a group of young does born this past spring making their way up their little path from the shed to get their daily grain. Hay is delivered to their shed for them in this kind of weather. I think they are as ready for some warmer weather as I am.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T13:10:00.002-06:00

Click picture to make larger.

After the Storm

2009-12-29T00:24:00.003-06:00

“May God give you...For every storm a rainbow, for every tear a smile, for every care a promise and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh a sweet song and an answer for each prayer.” - Irish Blessing

A week or so ago we had quite the storm here with torrential rain and even some hail fell on our farm but after the storm passed the sun began to peek through the clouds. That is when I saw this spectacular rainbow, what a blessing.

These pictures just do not do this beautiful rainbow justice at all. It was really quite stunning to see in person. The lighting was lowered on the first picture to try and make the rainbow more visible. The second picture is with normal lighting. This picture was taken at the end of our drive-way, looking down the country road that runs in front of our farm.

*Pictures can be made larger by clicking on them.