New Year

Wow, I’ve been out of touch lately. Guess I should be a bit more proactive about blogging. I could have made it a New Year’s Resolution but there are far too many other things to resolve in the new year. Number one being to streamline things here to make every day chores easier. Its getting there. Downsize the herd so I can ride the horses more, and we can take a break from shoveling manure [what seems like] constantly. Garden organization and landscaping; that’s next on the list, along with more home improvements. We’ve finished the upper bathroom, finished painting, and have most things inside how we like them. Now, the insulation just needs to be finished being installed (by my wonderful Honey), new roof put on, and lower room and bathroom renovated. All in good time.

Last year I let the garden go. Literally. I’m assuming it’s because the layout wasn’t working, the goslings which were supposed to only eat blade grasses ate everything including the tomatoes and strawberries (they’re now in the front field and may be Christmas or Easter dinner), and the bermuda grass took over. Needless to say, I more or less threw my hands up on the garden and needed a clean slate. Everyone says its takes at least a year to figure out how things will or will not work in a new place. Believe me, its true. Its been just over a year since we bought our house and things are just now falling into place as far as figuring out where to plant, where the wind comes from and doesn’t come from, where the sun shines and doesn’t shine (HAHA), etc. I’m going to try reconfiguring the garden shape this year along with some different planting methods. I’d like to put a brick or rock patio in the garden with a cute bistro table for morning coffee/tea (I no longer drink coffee- yuck) as well. Some of the planting will be in raised beds/barrels this year also. Today, I did some pre-planting work, fertilizing with goat and llama manure (more manure shoveling), relocated the artichoke plants, orange tree, rosemary and sage and planted some more herbs inside. Crossing our fingers they’ll be happy in their new permanent bed. We desperately need to get a greenhouse and root cellar put in. Again, all in good time. I think the newest project this year will be planting asparagus. I’m going to try it and will let you know how it turns out.

We’ve been contacted by a ton of potential farm interns. I’d love to have some extra help but just cannot, at the present time, bring myself to presently schedule anyone for interning. Of course the extra help is greatly appreciated and probably needed, but recently, personal space is appreciated on a higher level. When kidding season rolls around, I’m sure I’ll regret the lack of scheduling.

Speaking of kidding…. we’re well on our way. We were going to freshen out quite a few more does than we normally do, however, life is constantly changing and we’ve decided to put a vast majority of the goats up for sale. We’re holding onto our core herd, maybe we’ll add some new blood later this year or further on down the road depending on the feeling. We will be milking just enough does this year to provide for ourselves and maybe supplement a couple of feeder pigs amongst other things. The herd share project is going on the back burner for now. There is a change in the wind and we’re following it! Hoorah for the new year!

The livestock guardian puppies are getting pretty big (be sure to check them our on our website www.littledipperfarms.com under the Livestock Guardian page). They’re such cute balls of fuzz. If only I had a time machine to freeze them at this stage, maybe a hair older. I expect them to be excellent livestock and area guardians since they’re parents are such hard workers. Little personalities are starting to emerge. I have no idea how people keep the pure white puppies straight. I have a hard enough time keeping track of the colored ones and they don’t even look identical unlike the white ones. There’s one who will get scared and sits in the corner, one who likes to growl at scary new things and another who saw a goat for the first time (again) today and barked ferociously in its tiny puppy voice. If only I could keep all of them (YEAH RIGHT)!

Anyway, lots of plans for the new year! More horse riding trips, more hiking, less worrying. Oh, and more driving the pony since her cart now has solid tires so no more flats. Lastly, eating less chocolate. Big weakness there. Does Nutella count as chocolate??

Until next time…

Half way there!

I cannot believe summer is more than half way over. As always, there are a million things going on here from harvesting vegetables out of the garden to canning pumpkin puree (ALREADY?!), canning fruits, and blackberry harvest. I need to get my hands on a good food dehydrator before next spring. I’ve heard dehydrating food preserves the flavor much better than freezing (makes sense), especially for goat milk ice cream purposes. We’ve also tried our hand at soft cheese making quite a bit this year. Turns out its pretty easy! Next year we’ll probably work on some harder cheeses since we’ll be milking quite a few more does anyway.

I do have to say that I really enjoy picking blackberries. Our does seem to enjoy the process as well. The goats take a walk with me to the back of the property and eat the lower blackberry leaves and berries (if I dont pick them before they get to them) while I pick the berries higher along the fence line. Kind of a “kill two birds with one stone”. I pick the berries and they assist in keeping the vines behind the fence and from taking over the field. When picking berries, I feel like I’m doing the “one for me, one for you” with Karine. She’s so funny, and thanks to her, our other LGD Bo, has become MUCH more friendly. Karine will sit next to me while I pick berries and bat her big eye lashes, scooting closer to me with each berry I pick and each one I don’t give to her. The super squishy berries are generally the ones that don’t make it into the bucket (since they’re the best for straight eating and not the best to use for canning or freezing anyway). It seems Karine has an idea for which berries will make it into her mouth instead of the bucket also, because before I can even offer a berry to her, she has her mouth propped open to have one thrown in. You’d have to see it to appreciate how funny it is. Karine and Bo have also become masters at killing ground squirrels. They then pack the dead squirrels to the barn and “protect” the goats from the big bad dead ground squirrel. I’m still not sure how they do it. Every now and again I’ll watch them tree one and wait at the bottom of the oak tree for quite a while, but how the squirrel goes from being in the tree to dead is beyond me. Realistically, they should be too fast for the LGDs, but after dead squirrel #5, I think the dogs have a pretty good operation going on down there. Whatever keeps them busy in their down time

Last month, we took the horses down to Pt Reyes for our annual trip. This time instead of staying at the Inn and Stables, we wanted to camp in Olema with the horses and ride over the mountain so we didn’t have to trailer everywhere. The first day, we took the horses directly to the beach since we arrived later in the afternoon, the second day we rode over the hill to the beach and back from camp then went home the third. What a blast! It was 60 degrees and freezing. Quite a difference from the 110 it’d been at home and really glad we took blankets for the horses. I’m sure it was a shock for them as well. We had a great time riding and spending time in town at the shops and restaurants but we really got a kick out of all of the wildlife. The first night we were there, Shane ran to town for some forgotten supplies while Stormie and I took a quick ride down by the creek. As usual, we diverted from the heavily used trail onto a smaller trail which turned into no trail at all. We were pretty close to camp but somehow got ourselves stuck in the creek bed and didn’t want to ride back through the poison oak the long way when we were sure to find a path “somewhere”. Sure enough, we managed to have the horses crawl up a side of the bank (riding 2 with 1 ponying behind) and back onto a dirt road. Right as we emerged from the creek, a very large doe stood about 5 feet from our horses casually chewing her cud.

As we rode back into camp, we noticed quite a few raccoons scurrying about (getting into the large trash bins) as well as a nosy

fox and other creatures of the sort. After riding the next day to the beach and back, we sat down for an early dinner when a fat raccoon came waddling out of the bushes. Mind you, it was still daylight, and as raccoons are nocturnal, were concerned about rabies or EPM etc. This was not the case. She simply wanted a piece of whatever we were eating. Feeding wildlife is normally a big”no no”, but this girl had been around the block, knew the secret, and I’m sure us not feeding her would have stopped her from begging at someone else’s camp. It was a pretty entertaining experience to say the least.

My sister decided to come up this past weekend and bring two of her horses with her to ride around and up in the mountains for the weekend. The same day, the guys were planning on going out back to go coyote hunting. Well it was more or less going out back to have a cold one as all of the horses we’re neighing at each other over the fence to the point where there was going to be nothing coming anywhere close to the house. Ah well. They had a good time as did Stormie and I riding in the field despite the high pitch whinnies carrying on.

On a last note- it is now breeding season for the goats. Our first does will be kidding the last week of January and on from there. Looks like we will have around 15-20 does kidding this year. Keep an eye out for the blogs of me pulling my hair out More does kidding means more milk, more cheese and more customers… in addition to more mouthes to feed and keep track of. We asked for it and we got it

June.

I am really trying to get better about posting in a timely manner. Once a month isn’t bad by my standards. I know a lot of farms post weekly or even daily, but honestly, I don’t know how they find the time so bear with me here.

Whats new…. hmmm well… we’ve added a new buck to the herd thanks a share with Lisa from 3G Family Farm in Kelseyville. Hopefully he’ll do some good things for our herd. We’ve finally cut this year’s hay field and sent some samples off to the lab for testing. Results should be back soon but it looks really good! 

The garden has really been taking off. Note to self: plants love the chaff out of the barn full of goat manure as well as the llama manure from out front. Within a week all of our plants have doubled and tripled in size thanks to our “special” mulch formula/fertilizer. We also purchased some goslings the other day to help with snake deterring as well as keeping the weeds down and some bug control in the garden. So far (even being only 2 weeks old) they’ve put a hefty dent in the unwanted foliage in the garden with our gosling tractor. They’re pretty cute also. I can’t help but enjoy it when they follow me around the back yard and the garden talking in their different tones and poking their necks out as arrogant geese do. Especially when they raise their tiny little wings, stretch, and run all at the same time. So cute!

We finally got linear appraisal over with so we can finally retire for the year and take some overdue vacations. Our first trip is

going to be our to Pt. Reyes to camp for a few days with the horses (FUN!) then we’ll see after that. Our WWOOFers we had at the house the week before appraisal did a great job clipping, however; not all of the victims were very cooperative.

Linear Appraisal is an excellent tool to use even for those who show. It gives a breakdown of each animal that you’ll never hear in the show ring. It also confirmed for us where we need to improve even though we were already heading that direction. Our girls didn’t do as well as they should of since none of them except two filled their udders. All of the bucks did decently. Last night we went out to feel juniors and some milking does after our linear appraisal lesson. We’re on the right path as far as I’m concerned to making the improvements we need. There are a couple does who will be cut either before or after kidding but otherwise, it’s not completely a lost cause. On our trip home from linear appraisal we had a blow out on the horse trailer. That makes either 6 or 7 flats in the last few months. It’s really beginning to get old. The blown out tire did a good number to the fender but otherwise we made it home in one piece. The horse trailer is now out of service until further notice. Need to get 4 new tires put on it…. ugh.

Recently, we’ve enjoyed taking the horses up in the hills out past Paskenta. On Memorial Day we took them on a nice complex trail just east of the Yolla Bolly. The horses were pooped and I ended up with poison oak all over my face. We then took them out to Black Butte Lake which Scooter (my mare) and I both confirmed (she confirmed by trying to murder me the whole time) was one of the most boring trails we’ve ever taken. Note: if you have an old horse, a show horse or are not a trail rider go out to Black Butte, you’ll have a blast. The only exciting events out at Black Butte turned out to be us almost stepping into a ground hive (thank goodness Scooter saw it) and during one of her tantrums from severe boredom she almost backed into a fairly large rattle snake. Right after the Black Butte ride (because the horses didn’t even break a sweat) we trailered them up to Thomes Gorge trail. It was a nice trail. Very interesting, ups, down, big rocks, steep hills, switchbacks, creeks, and everything else we look for in a good trail. The horses enjoyed it but pooped out before we got to the end (b/c we had to climb all the way back out also). I’m looking forward to taking that trail again. Scooter cracks me up. She’s so incredibly alert (unlike Chip), she sees everything before anyone else does. On our way down the trail we caught two coyotes running across our path and up the hill. They were leaping over all of the burnt brush and kept looking back. Im sure there’s some good hunting up there.

Black Butte Lake does have some other good aspects such as very clean water and great swimming

This past weekend, my sister and I enjoyed the Jr Rodeo in Corning then we headed down to the Horse Expo in Sacramento the next day with our grandma, Meme. I found a nice helmet that fit amazing and doesn’t look rediculous. SO much shopping! We also watched a good seminar on bitting your horse and the effects of certain bits. It’s nice to refresh on horse knowledge. I was going to buy a bareback pad while we were at the expo, but glad I didn’t because I found a lady in Gerber who was cleaning out her track room and had a brand new one with all of the features I needed for only $5! I couldn’t believe I almost paid $70+ for one at the expo. Goes to show, shopping around is always a good idea.

Things have been going really well since Shane is now our of the academy. The fire house is officially picking him up as a full time employee with all the benefits as of July 1st (after 6 years of working there). Feel like we’re on the right track now The house is also coming along. All of the rooms have been painted and new windows have been finished. I need to finish painting some trim today but other than that, it’s come around quite a bit since we moved in. Even our hall bath got a giant face lift. We bought an 8 foot pool the other day to keep cool in. Quite a sight. I’ll attach a picture below….. now off to do chores!

Long weekend.

Since my last post, we have attended our first couple shows of the season. Everything will be MUCH easier when Shane is home (this is the last week after 5 months of intermittent once a week visits!!!). We didn’t come home with anything from our first show of the year, but did come home with 2 Reserves, a Grand Champion and a Best Udder from this past weekend’s show.

It’s very interesting how high stress our life was before we moved out here. Our low stress (for the most part) lifestyle is much better on the body for sure, but now that the stress level has dropped, it is much easier to become spread too thin or overly stressed. Not something I enjoy any longer. I also noticed, after we had several guests at the house this weekend (friends who stayed with us during the show), going from  seeing VERY few people in the last few months to having 7 extra bodies in the house was a bit of a culture shock. We currently have two more shows on the books for the year in addition to 305 day milk test and linear appraisal. PHEW! I will be thrilled when it is all over with and we can take a well-deserved break from all of the activities and some vacation time here and there. May cut the show/milk season short for some well-deserved vacation time.

Our girls are doing a decent job on milk test this year. I haven’t been using their milk for anything in the past couple months due to it being SO SOUR because of the horehound and filaree (have finally found information on this plant after MUCH research). I do have to give the goats quite a bit of credit for doing damage on the noxious weeds as well as the blackberry vines and poison oak, though. Maybe it will make for some interesting cheese…

The rooster who was almost licked to death has survived and is doing well. He is by far the most easy-going rooster we’ve had. So far, he’s shown no signs of aggression or any interest in humans. We’ll have to see if this behavior continues as he matures or if his brain is poisoned by testosterone down the road. Below is a picture of him after his “incident”.

So far, we have 2 does bred for fall. I may be breeding one more. The does being bred are all first fresheners. Not sure if they’ll be staying in the herd and if they do, they most likely wont make it onto the show string next year just because they are pretty small for their age. At this point we’re just going to play it by ear. Our herd numbers are coming back up after selling quite a few mature does and only retaining 6 of this year’s doe kids (and 1 buck). We’ll be adding another mature buck to the herd here shortly as well. I can’t express how nice it is to have pasture for the goats vs. dry lot. Even if it is soon-to-be dryland pasture, the difference and changes in the animals’ health and behavior is still incredible.

Jenny, our newly added boer goat was recently bred to our neighbor’s fainting buck. Hopefully she’ll throw some nice butcher kids this fall. Sausage, our boer butcher wether is also growing at an incredible rate. At only a couple months old, he is just as big as our Sr. does.

Lastly, our garden has been put in and is doing pretty well. A friend of ours brought us a citrus tree and another brought us some gourd plants. Now just need to get them into the ground with everything else. The potatoes are doing incredibly well and we found out that we have a plum tree and two mature apricot trees out front in addition to all of the other fruit trees. What a nice surprise! Heading off to town! Happy farming.

See what I mean??

I knew it! Show season is just around the corner! So much for keeping up on my blog posts…. It’s a good thing though- means there’s a lot going on here.

Since my last post, we have sold all of this spring’s kids except for the 6 doelings I’m retaining. I was sure we’d have some left-over kids this year since we’ve moved, but it was really the opposite effect. May have something to do with the over-abundance of livestock people up here. It really is amazing what a difference there is between the communities here and the ones in Lake County/Bay Area. There must be at least 10 horse/cattle trailers that go down our road daily. Love it

I planted a few fruit trees also since my last post (and white washed all of the young trees to protect from sunburn). We ended up with an apple, Asian pear, apricot, and nectarine tree going down the driveway to add to the other fruit trees we already have here. Everything is in full bloom and is absolutely BEAUTIFUL right now. Driving to town feels like I time-traveled back to the 1800′s with all of the rolling green hills, cattle (WAY more cattle than people here), and old old barns.

All of our girls (goats) are doing great. We have some very promising udders and some beautiful junior does this year. This seems to be one of our “off” years as far as show seasons go. Every other year or so, there is a show season where I just don’t have very many animals to show due to them already having certain show wins, needing to mature a little more, etc. Looks like we have 3 or 4 senior does to show this year and a couple juniors. Our midget yearlings who were victims of some HORRIBLE hay we had purchased from the feed store last year have really began to bloom, finally. They’re looking great. Still midgets, but no longer ugly midgets. They’ve already grown quite a bit since we’ve moved and hopefully will continue to put on some needed inches before we breed them this year. Our bucks have also finally made it up here and LOVE it. They don’t know what to do with themselves in the big front pasture. When I let them go out front, they all looked out into the field then in unison jumped up in the air and took off running. They’re now enjoying the front pasture with the llama and one of the horses. Things like that make me even more appreciative of our new farm. It is quite clear how much all of the animals appreciate the upgrade in facilities as well….

We had two pullet casualties since we purchased them which is to be expected. One squished itself under the waterer (no idea how that happened) and one sacrificed itself to the outside world of predators by escaping. I have since rewired the pullet coop so no more escapees. Speaking of chickens… one of our hens has gone broody. YAY! Most broody hens are a nuisance and it is a trait that has been bred out of most chicken breeds, but I feel its necessary to have at least one broody hen on a self-sufficient farm. Our broody hen isn’t a rotten one either and allows me to check eggs under her and mark which ones I decide to let her keep then take whichever I don’t want her to keep. She’s pretty cute stuffed into the nesting box poking her head out every so often. Shane built us this fantastic row of nesting boxes (I think I posted about that in an earlier blog), however, all of our hens feel the need to sit on top of each other to lay eggs in one of the boxes. Never mind there are 7 or 8 other identical available boxes in the same row…. Once we begin to have Buff Orphington and Australorp chicks, we can begin to rehome the crazy White Leghorns and California Whites. Those breeds are great layers but are CRAZY as far as personalities go. Hopefully the eggs our hen is sitting on are fertilized by our late rooster, Ernie. He was recently butchered due to a bad attitude and replaced with a very sweet (but vampire-like biter) Astralorp rooster. Night before last, our new rooster (who was still adjusting to the new facilities) somehow escaped from the chicken palace and got in with the livestock guardian dogs. I found him hiding in the grass the next morning, playing possum. I swore he was dead as a large patch of feathers had been removed from his back but he opened on eye and looked at me then made the saddest moaning sound… At least he was alive! He sat patiently while I smoothed salve all over his bare back and cooed with his eyes closed. He hasn’t crowed since that event. I think he feels a bit emasculated… I didn’t think he would survive the night (because who knows if he has any internal damage), but he’s been a trooper. Eating and drinking then moping around a bit. Only time will tell if he’s going to make a full recovery.

Another addition we’ve also added to the farm recently is a boer wether. He’s currently in quarantine until I get his blood test results back, and if he comes back clean, he’ll have a destiny for the dinner table eventually. Lola has also officially been butchered and put into the freezer. She finished out nicely with plenty of fat cover with only being grass-fed. Shane did a great job preparing her to be cut up then we had a relative (who used to be a butcher) come up to help cut her up and package her. It was sad to see her go but I am SO GLAD I no longer have to sheer her. I haven’t made any lamb dishes yet, but when we had our last lambs butchered, they were pretty tasty (when they weren’t cooked in a typical yucky lamb dish). Lola was borderline yearling mutton so we’ll have to see if there’s a taste difference or not.

Lastly, the garden has finally been tilled and our seedlings have been started in flats. It’ll be nice to start our garden earlier here vs. the beginning of May as we did in Lake County. Since we are doing heirloom, organic seeds this year, we’ll be able to let a couple plants seed out and save seeds for next year’s crop!

Our house improvements are still never-ending but it is really beginning to come around. We’re currently in the process of having our new windows ordered and installed then next will be a new roof (a metal roof at that!). Shane has been installing new ceiling fans and new light fixtures while I’ve been painting like crazy. 3 more rooms and the ceiling left to paint, but what a difference it’s made so far! Any more of this rainy-day weather and we’ll have all of these projects done in no time at all. I’ll be thrilled to no longer smell mold from the windows floating throughout the house and listening to them clang all night when the wind blows. These improvements are also going to be a huge factor in helping keep the house cool in the blistering summer heat. Pretty exciting! Once Shane is out of the fire academy that has been consuming ALL of his time (he’s home maybe once a week), many of our outside projects, including some fencing, will be addressed and completed.

All for now.

Keeping up

OK- I am bound and determined to keep up on blogging! We’ll have to see how long it lasts….

Since my last entry, we have finished kidding until Fall (when Crystal will be due to kid). 23 babies, with 10 does and 13 bucks. That was enough for me! All of the kids look great. Some have already been sent to their new homes and I’ve heard they’re doing wonderfully. I’ve been getting back into the non-forgotten rhythm of milking/feeding/milking/feeding. Milking does hinder some outside activities, but can also be used as a great excuse to not go to an event or to leave early! Have to look at the bright side of milking from Feb-Nov.

It’s still raining here. We had a couple days of sunshine but I’m thinking we really shouldn’t hear anything about drought this year after all of this rain. The upside of the rain is I cook constantly and have gotten caught up on all of my paperwork and correspondence. I’m anxious to get the garden going and order some seeds. Still have to plan out what I’m going to plant where. I know we’ll be planting much less squash and zucchini this year and I’d like to add some wheat, eggplant and potatoes for sure. We have a good abundance of fruit trees and bushes as I stated in my last post, but I’m really wanting to plant more. Possibly some citrus since it doesn’t really freeze here (NOTHING like it did at our old house), maybe plum and/or nectarine. There are three bare spots along the driveway that could use a tree.

Yesterday, Shane and I went to town to get some animal supplies, hay, etc. and ended up also coming home with some chicks. Ugh. I don’t know what we were thinking. The hens we purchased in Redding a while back coughed all the way home, and we had to dispatch a couple for fear of the other chickens catching something. Not good. They’re also the only hens who haven’t been laying eggs. With the better chicken set up, I’m hoping we don’t lose any chicks this year, then we can either butcher or rehome the homely looking hens.

Speaking of butchering….. Lola the lamb (as Shane has deemed her) is still due for her “D” day. We were going to send her out to be butchered, but after watching a few videos on cutting up lambs and purchasing a FANTASTIC book on how to slaughter and butcher each animal specie, Shane has decided he’s going to do it. He already knew the slaughtering and skinning/gutting part, just wasn’t too sure how to successfully cut and wrap. We’ll have to see how it goes.

I would make this longer but have to go milk (see how great that works??) LOL. No, I truly do. Will be taking my sister skiing tomorrow for her second time. Should be interesting. Before we know it, show season will be around the corner then it’ll be time to breed again! Amazing how time flies….

All for now-

WOAH!

Boy am I behind on blogging. Oh where to start……

Well, to make a long story short- we purchased a new farm in Flournoy, CA (population: 70) 13 miles West of I-5, an hour South of Redding. Although we are now further from family, we enjoy our new farm and new place so much more. This area definitely fits us and our needs better. Our farm is 13 acres and butts up to Thomes Creek which is one of the wildest (changes course most frequently) in California. We have many old oak trees, a large variety of fruit trees/bushes (persimmon, pomegranate, apple, pear, almond, fig, blueberry, and blackberries), plenty of forage for the animals and facilities which fit out needs much more. A half mile down the road is a store, small diner and the post office and just across the street is the Elementary school. It also seems like the stars are much brighter out here. Must be from the lack of light pollution. Driving out here, we enjoy vast cattle ranches, TONS of meat goats and rolling hills (which are green for now).

I am also excited to report that our garden will be quite a bit larger this year. The chickens have been busy grooming it until the ground is warm and dry enough to till and plant. Speaking of our chickens….In addition to the barn, we now also have a rather large chicken coop with plenty of nesting boxes. The first day we moved the chickens to the new place, they talked and cackled for hours about their new “chicken palace”.

In other news- we are WWOOF (wwoofusa.org) hosts again this year and are currently hosting 2 WWOOFers from Ohio. They’ve been here for about a month now and are a huge help, especially with Shane being in the academy until May. Seeing him once a week (if I’m lucky) has been a challenge but it helps to have some company and extra hands to help around the farm.

We have also began (and have almost finished) kidding this week. Starting Sunday afternoon, and 2 does left to kid. Right now we are sitting at 18 kids (10 bucks and 8 does). This year has been a fairly easy and laid back kidding year. Our does will be on 305 day again this year. Our 2009 DHIA testing was a success with every one of our does on test receiving their AR stars. BRB SS Dust in the Wind needs one more daughter to receive her AR to receive his star since he has never made it into the show ring. I don’t like to freshen more than 12 does every year, so we are also offering a couple milking does for sale. Depending on how the weather cooperates, having a “farm warming” visiting day may be on the calendar this year. Still debating. I am excited to see everything here bloom and begin to grow after being dormant all winter.

The livestock guardians have done a great job out here. Although we now have neighbors and they used to bark all night, every night when we first moved her- they have now settled in and have only been barking when there is a threat. Still have coyote issues and wild hogs out back by the creek but with the two LGDs and the llama, we haven’t had any losses as of yet (knock on wood).

With the help of our WWOOFers, we have also trained Chip to drive. So glad I held onto my cart and harness! Driving was supposed to be the pony’s job, but she still has a lot of growing up to do before we get to that point. He seems to enjoy it quite a bit (since he is the laziest horse I’ve ever had). I think it took an hour for us to go to the store and back with me pushing him the entire way. Its definitely easier to speed him up than to attempt to slow a hot horse down.

We will be going to the Valentine’s dinner and barn dance down at Paskenta hall this weekend. I will most likely also be volunteering at some point to be a 4-H leader for the dairy goat project out in this area since we are no longer stretching ourselves so thin.We will also once again be showing this year and will be helping out with the local dairy goat club and their show since we are not putting on a show here (for now).

More later…. off to milk.

Summer time

What a way to start the summer Even though all of our kids have been sold for the year, we have had many projects going on around the farm including fencing, haying the fields, putting in the garden, etc. We’ve recently purchased some butcher lambs and will soon be adding a couple beef steers to our menagerie of farm animals.

After bringing the lambs home the other day, I had both of them escape while home alone. Not the best thing. The started taking off across the hay field toward the orchards/vineyards. I was able to contain one and you would think the other would have followed. Nope- a bunch of pear workers and I ended up chasing her through orchards and vineyards for 3+ hrs until I was able to drag the other lamb all the way out to where the escapee was. She then followed the lamb I had on a halter into an old barn where we were able to corner her and throw both in the truck. Phew! What a day. I got plenty of exercise- that’s for sure!

Chicken update- after moving things around in the barn recently to prepare for stacking hay, our free range hens lost their minds. They’re now getting into EVERYTHING and inspecting everything. They started laying eggs in the trash can and jumping in strangers cars, etc, etc. So for now, they’re banished back to the chicken coop. Its pretty sad when you can tell a hen “NO” and she listens. lol.

Our hay harvest is in full swing right now. We cut the field last week to only have it rain on us the day after (of course). After sitting and drying for about a week, its finally dry enough to bale. We started baling this afternoon and will continue on through at least tomorrow. Once its all baled, it’ll then be picked up and stacked with the harrow bed and we have to figure out where in the world we’re going to put all of it. With 64 bales in the first row alone of 17 acres planted, that’s going to be a lot of hay. Smaller bales (70lbs) but I’m not going to complain since it’s actually manageable for me to move these vs 150 lb bales.

We’re also beginning to prepare and plan full time for our 3rd annual goat show the last weekend in June. Im sure it’s going to be a blast as it has been in the past years (and runs very smoothly).

Show season is nearly over for us and the goats have done well again this year. We had 2 jr does bring home 2 grands each and 2 reserves, a buck brought home a reserve and another finished his MCH with 2 grands. Out of the Sr. does we showed, we had a doe finish her CH with 2 ADGA grands, and another doe brought home 3 reserves and 1 grand. Pretty eventful to say the least!

Another update soon to come! Off to feed-

Hints of Spring

I love this weather! I’m beginning to find it very hard to stay inside doing paperwork vs. being outside to play with the puppies, goats, and horses.

Our spring garden has been started inside and has been doing well. I’m still debating between raised beds vs scooping dirt in the ground and putting mesh down to keep the gophers out. Our garden will be fairly large this year so I’m just not sure if we’ll be able to put in enough raised beds to suffice.

Our Rhode Island Red hens are laying quite a few eggs and I have to say, they’re beginning to grow on me. They’re now venturing to the front of the house in search of bugs, etc. The little white leghorns we purchased are also growing pretty well but they’re VERY fast on their feet. They’ll be inside for a couple more weeks at least (in the garage, not the house- yuck). Right now ’ debating on whether or not to order some meat chickens since we eat so much chicken. It cracks me up how I said “NO chickens” to “Maybe we should order 100 meat birds”. Lol. I think we’ll wait until next year to take on that project.

Our hay is growing quite nicely and I have been pretty successful at pulling the majority of the mustard out of the field. Everyone said it doesn’t hurt the animals when baled but it takes over EVERYTHING. We’re going to have a pretty diverse hay crop this year including: oat, wheat, rye, barley, vetch, bells beans, and dundale peas. I’m hoping all the different plants will keep the animals interested to not much wasted feed. We should have an overabundance of hay to get us through next year (hopefully). Still not sure if we’ll be selling much of it.

Our fence is finally going up! I’m SO excited! The front fence is nearly done and then 3 more sides left to go for just the parameter (another 900 feet I think?) We’re still planning out the cross-fencing, arena, gates, etc. So it may take a while. Not to mention- fencing is pretty pricey. My main goal is the parameter fencing first since all the animals are already fenced in for now. I’ll post some blog pics of the fence soon.

As if we needed any more animals, we adopted my sisters half-sized year old Basset Hound, Sally. She just wasn’t getting the attention she craved with my sister’s schedule. She’s eating up all of the attention she’s being given and loving being a “farm dog”. I feel guilty re-homing our foster dog “Tuff” and allowing Sally to take up residence but Tuff was a bit higher maintenance then your typical farm dog and was MUCH more athletic then any of the other dogs here making the balance off in a sense. Just didn’t fit in, in the end. So now that makes 2 wieners, Sally, and Buck (our ancient Kelpie/McNab). I officially feel like we have a dogpaloosa at the house but so far everyone (even Buck) plays and gets along with each other and all the farm animals.

Speaking of fencing, we moved the horses out into the front pasture (fenced with poly hot tape). I’m looking forward to moving the bucks over there for now and enlarging the horse pasture a bit. Always doing something! lol. Brie is also coming along well in her training. I need to start driving her again soon.

Lastly, we’re going to be starting on out soaps again this week. After I have some batches curing, we’ll be working on lotions, balms, and chapstick. YAY!

Show season is coming so check back for later posts and updates.

Serenity

I’m going to start this blog off with our chicken conquest. I have weakened when it comes to not letting the chickens out of their coop. lol. They do get into quite a bit, but it also cuts down on the amount of chicken feed and they eat bugs! I’m also convinced they lay more eggs when they’re allowed to roam around during the day. I’m still trying it out but the chickens have been making it fairly easy, going into their coop when the sun begins to go down. There hasn’t yet been any chicken chasing going on (thank goodness), instead its quite the opposite, with them following me around the yard nonstop and sitting at my feet staring up at me, whenever I stop walking. No- they’re not hungry- so what else could a chicken possibly want?

The last bad storm we had was unbelievable. I’m sure I posted on a blog before regarding the wind over here, but I would have never imagined it would have gotten as bad as it did. Thank goodness I was in the barn when the storm was at its worst. I was convinced it was going to rip the barn off its foundation, and after walking outside- I discovered at the same time I was fearing the wind was going to take the barn, it actually pulled our 2 outside horse stalls out of the ground, lifted them up, and dropped them on half of the roundpen. Thankfully the horses were standing out in the rain instead of in the stalls and were huddled in the corner instead of taking off. We’ve been unable to disassemble and reassemble the shelter until yesterday since the weather and ground was so wet. Yesterday, since the weather was warm, and the ground was dry, we were able to move the paddock and put up a new shelter to get the horses out of the rain instead of having them stranded out in the field. with only their waterproof blankets, standing on a (what was huge but now flattened) pile of wood chips trying to keep their feet dry.

The farm is slowly coming together. I wish I would have taken more “before” pictures but I think we’re finally catching up. The hay is growing and coming up nicely. It’s also harboring more jack rabbits then I would have imagined. While walking through the field this past weekend picking up sticks and pear tree pieces (so they don’t get baled with the hay), I must have nearly stepped on 4 or 5 jack rabbits. They aren’t eating the hay (thankfully), just using it for hiding. I’m super excited to begin working on the parameter fence this next week. That will eliminate a lot of stress since we pulled down the hot-wire the horses were in in the pasture, and have been keeping them in the paddock. The no climb fencing will also keep the jack rabbits, coyotes, and stray dogs out and will allow up to let the goats out into the pasture (even though they’re all a bunch of chickens and stay around the barn anyway. So still a lot of projects going on.

The goat kids are coming close to being able to be weaned. Once they’re weaned, we’ll be starting on soap making for this year. Our garden will also be put in this next month, the raised beds anyway. I don’t really want to deal with evicting the gophers since they’re guaranteed to return anyway, so we’re just going to completely avoid them by putting in the raised beds. It’ll be nice to have or own garden this year. Speaking of rodents or pests, we haven’t seen the blackbirds now for quite some time and are not missing them one bit. They’ll be back, no doubt but have to be the worst pests I’ve ever dealt with. They’ve greatly enjoyed eating about half of our hay seed and getting in the barn, dusting and leaving bird droppings everywhere, and eating the chicken feed; walking right into the chicken house to get to it…. The cats have been catching and eating about one bird a week so even the little sparrows and other birds have been keeping a safe distance. We still enjoy watching what birds we do have here (minus the black birds) even though our trees and bird friendly environments are minimal.

Oh! And I completely forgot! We took our trip to Nashville, TN this past week. What a blast and what a great city. I wouldn’t mind one bit living back there, but after seeing the tornado shelters, not so sure. I enjoy not worrying about tornadoes or hurricanes. Shane’s family is from Louisiana and they claim they prefer the hurricanes and tornadoes to earthquakes because they know when they’re coming and can plan for them. Even so- I’ll take earthquakes over that any day. But we did have a great time. Stormie thoroughly enjoyed it also. Wish we could have stayed longer but we had goats and a life to get home to. It is always nice to escape once in a while and run away from reality for a couple days.

Lastly, Brie, the pony we rescued, is coming along in driving. I went ahead and purchased her new harness (since the one I’ve held onto for a couple years didn’t fit), bit, and a new whip for her. She was pulling the tire and ground driving very well before the wet weather arrived. I started her again yesterday with ground driving and back to the lounging basics. I think we may be starting over again after the multiple tantrums she threw. After some disciplining, and realizing how rotten she was being- she didn’t move a muscle while standing tied. Normally- she shuffles, whinnies, and does all other baby actions including kicking out and striking at the trailer in frustration. We have plenty of work to do with this little girl but she has great potential and is pretty intelligent when it comes to training and common sense.

Well! I’m off to move the roundpen and get ready for a new load of hay. Taking the weiner dogs out in the back with me today no doubt means I’ll be giving them baths tongiht before coming inside. The daylight savings has kept me outside most of the day. I have no idea how I was doing it when it got dark at 5 PM. Check in soon for more posts on our progress and eventful times here on the farm