I love baby season!

I know I haven't been keeping up lately, but there's just not been anything happening. It's just been cold and snowy. Now, though, things are thawing and stuff is starting to grow. It's also baby season!

A couple days ago we had our first baby goats of the season. I'm keeping a friend's goats for while til circumstances are better and we had decided to breed the alpine. Even though she's a senior lady, she was in good shape and had plenty of spunk. I mean, you'd never believe her to be 15. Her teeth are in better shape than my 9 year old goat.

Here's the old girl a couple of days before kidding.

I always have big kids here, not sure why. I have been working on that issue for years, but am not having much luck. This old lady ended up with a 10 lb 15 oz buckling and a 7 lb 6 oz doeling. It was a long, difficult delivery but she came through it like the trooper she is. She's a good mom and it looks like she'll be a good milker as well. The kids weren't even close to keeping up with her yesterday so I milked her out and got 6 lbs. Not bad for 2 days fresh and 15 years old!

The little girl, whom we are calling Tidbit at the moment.

 

And the monster little boy.

 

Anyway, she seems to love being a mom and the kids are doing great! Three does yet to go, but the first ones are always the most exciting.

Update on my broody and her chicks.

Well, that broody hen has managed to keep all her little alive so far. Quite impressive since their first week was -30F. Water was an interesting challenge. My birds get heated dog bowls for their water in the winter but I couldn't use one of those for the chicks, it's both too tall and too deep. So I decided to try popping the bottom out of one of the heated bowls and setting the chick waterer on that. It actually worked out pretty well. It would work better if the waterer fit the base better but I can keep one side thawed and also the main jug part as well. I did bring it in at night when it that cold, but once it got back up to 0F, I left it out there and it has been fine.


There's the bowl the heat element came out of.

 

And here's the heating element.

You know how they say it's all in the timing?

Well this bird ain't got it!  We had such a mild winter for so long, but it finally decided to show up around the first of February. And then it decided to stay. We haven't seen freezing in a month. And in the last couple weeks, it has snowed a fair bit.

Now this isn't a big problem, it's not at all abnormal for the area and I like it. I like winter. However, it doesn't seem like the best of times to decide to go broody. But what do I know? I went ahead and let the chicken have half a dozen eggs because, what the heck, right? As of right now, there are three chickies under her. Naturally, she picked the top nest box so getting out might be a bit of an issue. Not to mention it's below zero (F) and that's not looking to end soon.

We'll just watch her close and when she looks like getting restless, she and her brood will go in a nursery pen so the little ones have less place to get lost in and less competition for food. Fingers crossed!


This is the temp today, not sure what it is if you figure windchill.

What it looks like outside, still snowing pretty good.

And a couple babies. Not the best picture, but I didn't want to expose them to more cold than I had to.

And this weather is why I haven't been really doing anything blog worthy. I've been keeping animals alive and staying warm! :)

Introducing Squirrel, the cat

This is Squirrel, my youngest child's cat. While we have 5 cats running around, this one has the most personality. Actually, I think he may be tied at the top of the list of all the cats I've ever had for interesting personality. The other one was a cat we had when my oldest was somewhere around 4. He was also a black cat that we called BC. Original, no? It was one of the sadder days we've had when he got run over. :(

We acquired Squirrel a little over a year ago after the birthday kitten we'd gotten youngest was accidentally killed. I was looking for a kitten of about the same age so that the remaining kitten (hubby just couldn't pass up one of his own) would hopefully bond with it and they'd be playmates. I had a lady answer my ad with a kitten she said was six months old, which would be good since our remaining kitten was 4 months old. She said he was great with kids and dogs, which  he was, and that he was still a young kitten, which he wasn't. She lived in the city an hour away so we agreed to meet halfway. We get there and she pops out of her car with this large, black cat. Um, not a kitten. He was actually around a year old. But what was I going to do? She'd driven this far and was apparently going to take this cat to the shelter when she saw my ad. So, of course, I took him anyway. Good decision!

He is the most unflappable cat I've ever seen. He is not laid back, it's just that nothing phases him. He rode in the car vary calmly and acted like he'd always been here. He actually did bond well with the kitten, which surprised the heck out of me at his age. He acted like the dogs weren't even there. He's my little freak dog's favorite playmate as well.

There was once he was up a tree and oldest child's cat was up there trying to start a fight. Squirrel ended up falling out of the tree and oldest child caught him. No claws involved. He just acted like he fully expected her to catch him and all was good. He baffled my LGD who lives out with my goats. This dog took forever to get used to my barn cats and when this cat came strolling casually out to the pasture one day to see what I was doing, the dog went into guard mode and started barking and charging, the cat completely ignored him and the dog was seriously confused. They are now best friends and sometimes the cat will even deign to play with the dog. The cat is one for three creatures that the dog allows near his food.

Squirrel is a ferocious hunter and usually catches at least three things a day, although he has a hard time keeping them since the dogs have decided he is a provider of snacks and tend to take his catch. He's been murder on packrats recently. He loves to be outside most of the time and he's made himself a cat door out of my bathroom window this last summer. Why that particular window, I don't know, but he gets up there, with something like an inch of sill, and pries open the screen so he can come and go. Then I discover it and fix it and the cycle begins again. He's rather put out now that the weather is colder and the window is closed.

When he decides that he is need of attention, you will give it to him. Otherwise he tackles you. He doesn't use claws but he's a big cat, 12 pounds, and he can be very persuasive. He latches onto a body part and doesn't let go til you give him what he wants. He loves to go for walks and has gone on walks of more than a mile with us. He got hot on a walk one day this summer and thought the fox den we'd just come across would be a fantastic spot to cool off. I had to grab him as he was headed down a tunnel as I didn't think that was going to end well. I don't know a cat this fearless is still alive, but thankfully he is.

This is the bathroom window from outside, about 6 feet up.

And, most importantly, he is great with youngest child although I think he's everybody's favorite cat!

RIP Bear

We had to say goodbye to the best dog in the world last week. He had been battling chronic bronchitis for a couple years now, but the damage caused by the disease was finally more than he could take.

We acquired Bear as a 9 week old pup just a couple months shy of 11 years ago. He was a Pyrenees/farm shepherd cross. and our first LGD. Purists continually put none LGD mixes down, but in my limited (3 dogs) experience, they are the best. We did have a bit of an issue with chickens for a bit when he was young, but we had a chat and got past that. In fact, there was one time that I had a weird rooster that was raised by himself and was afraid of chickens so he was always hard to get in the coop at night. One night he'd been left out and we had a terrific thunderstorm. As it was easing off, I was laying in bed and heard this weird squawking sound that kept coming from under my window. I got up and poked my head out the window. There, on the sidewalk, was Bear and this rooster. The rooster was a wet mess! Bear had brought him up to the house and kept poking him with his nose to make him squawk and then the dog would look up at the window to see if I'd showed up yet. Naturally, I went downstairs and rescued the chicken and told Bear what a good dog he was.

He was the most perfect dog we've ever had. He was friendly and welcoming with strangers until and unless they proved to be untrustworthy. He was perfectly well behaved with all livestock and would stay and protect whatever animals I put him in with but he preferred to be free to wander the place at will. Since he was sooo protective of the kids, and we have always lived in bear and cougar country, we tended to accommodate that desire. He was well behaved indoor and out. He was a BIG dog but was always so careful when indoors to not knock stuff over.

Even as he aged, his desire to be out and about protecting his family and territory was never lacking. Although he had hip dysplasia and arthritis, we really couldn't get him to come inside out of the cold until last winter. Even then I sometimes had to put my foot down. Even in his last extremity as we were waiting here at home for the vet to show up for euthanasia, he wanted to go help the other dogs chase off a skunk down by the driveway. He just couldn't do it, though.

We laid him to rest up on the hill next to our son so he could continue his favorite duty, protecting his family.

RIP Bear, best dog in the world. You've left a big hole in our world.

My Girls' Cafeteria Style Mineral Feeder

For some reason, I think I have neglected to show off the cafeteria style mineral feeder that my girls are using. I thought I had covered it, but I can't find it, so......

Someone we knew was cleaning up their old shop/barn and let me go through all the stuff they wanted to dispose of. One of the things heading out the door was a set of bins to store nails and such that the old guy had built. I saw it and thought mineral feeder! I had been wanting to go to the cafeteria style of minerals but was still working on something to hold the mineral. I only had so many old buckets or whatever to use and I needed more. This would be perfect!

And it has been. There have been a few adjustments over time, but not much. I originally had it higher so the girls had to stand on their hind legs to reach it but then I ended up with a boer with a broken leg and she couldn't do that anymore. So I lowered it to just head height for everybody. Now that that doe has passed, I think I may raise it up again. This year I have a bunch of houdini type babies and they have figured out how to jump up and in it, kind of making a mess. While I haven't had that issue before, I'm hoping raising it up again will help that. Probably not, but one can hope! :)

The board on top was a vain attempt to keep the babies off.

Since there weren't quite enough compartments to handle all the minerals, I also used two 6" pvc pipe end caps and the bottom of an old rectangular bucket that had mineral or something of the sort in it.

 I also used an old rabbit dish that I had left laying around from the days when I had rabbits.

An impromptu nest box

I was out in the goat shed fixing a couple things when I noticed that one of my turkey hens was looking like she'd like to lay an egg. She kept trying to cram herself in one of the chicken nest boxes and that wasn't going so well. The weather has been such that none of the birds are the least interested in going outside, including this bird. Usually they lay under the old goat manger, but things have changed a bit and that is not really much of an option at the moment.

Bee update

So I did a sort of look see at one of my hives the other day. Remember that octagon hive I built here ?
Well, I built one window in it I like to peek every so often and see what's up. I wish I had windows on more than one side and on my other hive, but I don't.

Anyway, it looks like the bees have been busy

How was your garden this year?

While I had a better year than last, it wasn't my best either. I got a lot of beets, some onions, quite a few peppers and a very good pumpkin harvest. Oh, and lettuce this spring was very gung ho! I had tons of that stuff!

I grew three different types of pumpkins,

Copper deficiency and worming signs

I thought I'd show a few if the signs to look for with copper deficiency. These goats only show a couple of them, but it's better than nothing.

A common early sign is reddish or lighter colored hair. It's very obvious on black goats, but

Started but unfinished projects

So, is spring/early summer full of activity for you? In the last week or so I've really been able to get busy with some. Of course, now the place is full of started-but-not-finished projects. While the weather had been nice for a bit, it was still wet enough that I didn't want to much that was out in the pastures so as not leave a bunch of ruts. As for the garden,

Bees!

I got my bee nucs last week, yay! I don't have any 'normal' hives so it has made transferring the frames a little interesting, but I'll make it work.

My first hive is a modified perone hive. I'm not sure why I made it that shape, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. :) Inside is just an open cavity. The bees are supposed to fill it up however they please. You're supposed to fill it with a prime swarm, but those

Kidding

Alright, here's a post about kidding. Keep in mind, all this stuff about goats is purely from my experience with my goats. Goats being goats, yours may vary widely! Here's a general overview, though.

Some goats, especially first timers, will have a long and fairly obvious early labor. You may see the sunken belly mentioned in an earlier post, mild contractions, general discomfort, clingy behavior, looking as if they are looking for something while making little bleats, etc. They may or may not have a normal appetite. Mine always eat up til the actual pushing, but some don't. At some point, things will get down to business and you will be in the actual process of birth.

Pre and early kidding signs

I've had a few questions here in person about goats and signs that they are getting ready to give birth and what sort of discharge is good and what is bad. I thought I'd do a post on that in case anybody else is interested.

Just a warning, there will be lots of pictures of goat butts and various substances coming out of them.

Finally! Some warmer weather!

Well, after a little over a month of temps ranging from -28F to 12F, we have had a few days now of the 40s! It's positively spring like out there! And, as usual, I have to do something gardenish. I'm starting a few herbs inside and trying a new (for me) way of starting onions. I am the world's worst onion grower so

Dinner and a snow

I love winter! We get to cook over the fire more often since the fire danger is about zilch.

And the best part of winter is the snow! I love it when we get a bunch of the white stuff! So you get

Boys and their toys,......sigh..............

This is one of the disadvantages of owning a male breeding animal.

My boer buck was in a separate pasture with his girls and the dairy buck was on the other side of the gate. I've been doing this for years, but this year, the boer took issue with the dairy buck being within 20 feet of his girls. I'm not really sure what I'm going to with this yet.

Nothing beats a good setup!

So, I finally got a decent chicken butchering setup, yay! For years I've avoided butchering because, while I had a nice plucker I built, my only work surface was an ice chest. That's a little hard on the back, to say the least!
I snagged a countertop and the bathtub from an old singlewide that was being torn dow. The bathtub is a little overkill, but the kitchen sink was already taken.

A New Goat Feeder

Previously I fed my goats in their barn. I had a nice manger I'd built and it worked pretty well for a few animals. The problem is that I now have too many goats! So, I decided to try out the feeders from plans by Premier1. I'd seen these on other blogs and everyone seemed to love them. You can now add me to that crowd. These are easy to build,

Why is it..........

That I never have a camera when something cool happens?! Taking a walk this morning and the dog scared up a great horned owl. I don't know what it was doing on the ground but it flew up to a low branch on a tree and let us get within 10 feet of it. It would have been a really cool pic!

Oh, well.