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

After the storm

Well the rain has finally come! We’ve gotten a good couple inches in the past few days, the creek has began to flow again and our hay is growing once again! YAY! If you’re a repeat reader to our blog, you’ve most likely discovered I’m not a fan of the cold/wet weather by any means but it’s of course necessary, especially when trying to make things grow! lol.

We also finished kidding Jan 30. Not completely finished (we still are waiting on Trixie to kid in April), but all of our Nigi does have kidded. We bred them for about 2 weeks apart, but had babies all within about 5 days. It was a pretty exciting week for us to say the least. We’ll also be starting DHIA milk test again in March and have a few does who I’m especially interested to see what their percentages and weights are through this next year. Our kidding season wasn’t too terribly eventful this year, minus one doe’s rather eventful kidding. You can view pictures of all the new kids (and some goats for sale) on our website (www.littledipperfarms.com).

Speaking of websites! Our new website is finally up. You’ve probably already checked it out if you’re on our blog! Our old host was AWFUL. Even as premium subscribers (who they claim to take very good care of), it took over a week for them to get back to us (they claim they’ll respond within 24 hrs) after discovering our site builder was down, and they have NO live help. Awful. Ugh. Their site builder was also a 3rd party app. so it took forever to correct the problem and even now, it isnt completely resolved. Anyway, we switched to GoDaddy.com. Its a bit more advanced technology wise, but oh so worth it. I can call and speak to a real person if I have a problem also! lol.

Nothing else around here has changed much. We have to move the horses and arena back to the other side of the property for convenience and for my sanity after the hay is cut this year. That’ll be painstaking but worth it in the end. We also got some chickens! Finally! However, these chickens will not be exiting the chicken coup any time soon. I felt bad for them the other day, not being free range and all, and let them out only to discover they drove me crazy, got into everything, and chased any animal smaller than they are. Back into the coop they went! We now have an over-abundance of eggs and something to eat our bad milk and molded grain.

More postings soon!

Off to finish the rest of my chores!

PONY!

I’m quite excited to report that we brought home our new pony yesterday afternoon after a long 2 week wait to be approved by the adoption agency. It was a long drive but we finally got her home before dark. She is a pudgy little thing and is very food driven but is independent and pretty brave also. She’s staying stayed the night in the box stall in the barn since it was getting hard to see the fence line and didnt seem to mind it too terribly much. We gave her a good brushing and some “primping” before coming inside last night and again this morning. She seems to like attention but is still weary about trusting us. She also neighs every time I walk away… I’m thrilled to have a pony to drive again! We’re thinking about renaming her to “Brie” since her current name doesn’t fit her personality.

She did great in the round pen this morning. She doesn’t know much but took to lounging and having a crupper on easily. I know she was broke sometime before and she took to the saddle no problem. After some mental and physical work this morning, I ponied her on Scooter down to the creek and was pretty impressed. She’s a very smart pony and catches on quickly. LOVED the creek. She does need more patience but we’ll be working on that quite vigorously.

We’re hoping to take a trip to Pt. Reyes next month for an overnight camping trip with the horses. I’m also going to be taking Brie and Scooter to the next gymkhana to get them out since the weather has been a bit deterring.

We’re also going to be flying to Nashville in early March for a weekend trip! More on that when the time comes. In the mean time we’re still waiting for babies but I’m going to let the horses keep me busy until they arrive

Here’s a new pony pic! She’s very cute

New Place/New Winter

As you know, we have moved across town, hence bringing many changes for us, the property, animals, and the WEATHER! I do love our new location, especially the beautiful view we have of the mountain, being on the other side of the highway- closer to town, etc. My two LARGEST dislikes here, however, are the relentless mud and the weather change from across town to here.

Because our property used to be a pear orchard and the soil was never “worked” other than growing pears, its surprisingly high in nitrogen which is awesome for growing plants/hay/etc. On the other hand, the soil here is like clay. When it’s dry its as hard as rock, when its wet it slippery, and sticks to you and EVERYTHING it comes into contact with. We’ve slowly been conquering it by putting down rock base, wood chips, etc. It’s slowly yet thankfully progressing. Next will be my attack on the gophers. If anyone has any recommendations for those little buggers, let me know please. I’d rather not have to put in a raised garden to avoid them, but at this point that seems to be my only option.

On to the weather! It’s interesting how much the climate can change within the 2 miles we’ve moved from across town. On Kelsey Creek Dr. the weather was much drier/sunnier and not as windy. I LOVED the trees as well. I enjoy being down in the valley now, opposed to being on a hill, but the fog seems to enjoy it as well. I can’t tell you how many times I have left our new place which regularly swims in very dence fog to find just a mile into town it’s sunny and warm! The temperatures here also seem to stay colder for a longer duration through the day. We FINALLY saw the sun yesterday after about 3pm. Boy did all the animals love it. The 3pm breeze here is a blessing on the hottest days and wretched when its raining. It has taken a little getting used to but the animals and I have been adjusting. The wiener dogs have taken up a permanent residence in front of the fire place and the heater.

With the cold weather this year came stiff joints for Shane’s cattle dog (McNab/Kelpie cross), Buck. One of the horses broke his leg 6 years ago as a puppy and he now has 3 plates holding his right rear leg together. Not only does it prevent him from keeping as warm as everyone else, but it seems to have a huge effect on his joints. A couple weeks ago, I thought his time here on earth was up. He was having an awful time getting around, couldn’t stand, couldn’t relieve himself, was non-compliant, and wasn’t getting any better when he was brought in the warm house. While Shane was a work, I doubled his joint supplement to 1000mg/day. OH WHAT A DIFFERENT DOG! He is now chasing Tuff (our rescue dog who adopted us), barking in Tuff’s face and holding his own. Oh and he is once again stocking the cats who seem to laugh and wave their tails in his face. Must be feeling better.

I am also stoked to share that we have just been approved through the Nor Cal Equine Rescue to adopt our new driving pony prospect! She’s a very cute 13.3H POA mare. She’ll be 4 years old this coming spring. I don’t remember how I came across an ad for her, but I was browsing general ads in the Sacramento Valley a couple weeks ago for anything of interest since I was going to be driving to Roseville to go bridesmaid dress shopping for Jill’s wedding anyway. After shopping, a girlfriend and I drove out to take a look at her and I fell in love! She isn’t quite what we were “looking” for (truth be told, we weren’t really looking) since we were planning on purchasing a Haflinger mare this coming spring, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about bringing a new horse home. I now pray that our horse selling days are over and we’ll have Scooter and this new one (Shane and I have to name her) until they die. Going from 22 horses and a full horse eventing schedule down to 2 horses (or I should say 1 and a half) is quite a change but much less stressful. We’re enjoying our new facility (which is still in the works), the barn, the oversized roundpen, stalls, etc. I’ll be even more excited when our fencing is finished this coming year and we can throw the horses out in the back pasture.

On another note- Our goats are getting very close to kidding! Less than 20 days to go! We gave CDT shots, trimmed hooves, udders, etc a week or so ago and go the inside stalls prepped, the new kid pen and kid house finished, etc. Now we’re just waiting to see how many does we’ll be gifted with this year. We decided to kid a bit earlier then we did last year so we can end our 305 day DHIA milk test earlier as well as being able to get kids off to their new homes earlier in the year. Two years ago we kidded all through summer and fall which I will NEVER do again. The bottle feeding never ends! We’re going to be doing Linnear Appraisal with all of our does who are registered with ADGA in September and we’re most likely only going to make it to three or four show this year since we have quite a bit going on here. Our annual show is also on its way. All of the judges have been booked and the entry forms are finished.

Our hay crop seems to be taking off. The front two acres was planted considerably later than the rest of the field so it’s taking a bit longer to get doing, not to mention the menace black birds have gobbled up the majority of the seed. I love the variety of birds around here but the black birds are awful. They get in the barn in search for grain, pick through the horses hay, eat the hay seed, leave bird droppings and dust all over the barn and nothing seems to get rid of them or scare them off. I had hoped the cold weather would hinder them somewhat but to no avail, they’re circling the barn this morning.

Well, I’m off to feed, finish morning chores and take the horses out. It’s still somewhat early but pretty gloomy outside. Not sure if the sun will make it out today. I’ve included a  picture of our new pony. Will post more when she arrives.

Fall Freshness

Phew! Well we finally got the rest of the hay planted yesterday to our relief. And of course it looked like it was going to rain all day yesterday then FROZE last night. Now all we have to do it wait. I have to say I do love the farming aspect of it but definitely dont enjoy being at the mercy of the weather.

We also found the energy to move the horses to the other side of the property, put up our mini sized arena (or oversized roundpen), tore down the old back yard fence and put up new goat fencing! Thank goodness Shane only works 2 days a week!

We will also be adding a new member to the family next week. We went ahead and purchased Button (our wiener dog) a friend to play with since the 2 large dogs tend to run over the top of her when trying to play. He’s a black and tan piebald mini dachshund. He’ll be flying in from Idaho this coming Friday.

I’m looking forward to kidding in Jan and Feb! We’ll shortly be in the process of putting up the new house for the kids after they are pulled from their dams. Enjoy the holidays! I know we will!

BIG CHANGES! ;)

What a week! To make a long story short, we’re finally engaged (after 5+ years)!! Exciting! We’re also in the process of purchasing 16 acres and moving ourselves and all the goats/horses/dogs/stuff across town. In the mean time, we’re completely remodeling the house, having a huge estate sale Oct 8th on through the 19th, getting fencing up, hay in the barn, goat’s settled, all before it rains, and crossing our fingers all will be done before the party at the end of Oct! OH! And we have to get the hay planted too. Shoot- forgot about that. All of the girls are bred and expected to kid at the end of Jan, beginning of Feb. We’re also still putting on the goat show next year (we’ll acctually be residing on the property we host it at- YAY), but the show will be put on by Little Dipper Farms instead of the MKDGA. Not much difference at all. Shane and I put on the show anyway with some help from a few friends. I’m ecstatic to move the goats! More room, larger pastures, and no more coyotes (which are howling again ATM). Anyway- just a quick update of the LDF happenings!

AGS Nationals-2008

Im posting a little late on the National Show but we’re finally slowing down here. Still working on getting the MKDGA show set up and ready to go but it’s been going smoothly.

The goats came come with quite a few awards under their belts and we came home exhausted and overjoyed with how well the goats (both kids, bucks, and does) did.

It was so nice to spend time with those goat people we don’t get to see very often and one evening we were even able to sneak over to the coast and escape the heat. I was thrilled to make it home, even though the fires around us were raging, and unpack everything. The girls and puppies were thrilled to be home as well.

We had a bit of a show break until the upcoming weekends. New posts coming soon-

Motherload show

Oh what a weekend! We enjoyed seeing everyone who was at the show this weekend. Is always nice to catch up and visit with our “goat family”. Friday, driving through Sac, it was about 105. I thought the girls in the trailer may keel over. Once we got to Placerville, it cooled off a bit. The show Saturday was very large with over 100 Nigis. We had a Jr. buck take GCH, a Jr. doe take reserve (restricted grand) and a Sr doe take RGCH. Then Sunday we went home about 1:30pm and an AGS RGCH Junior doe. Overall, it was a productive weekend. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again at REDGA then on to AGS Nationals and the MKDGA show!!