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Boy is it a pain. I love looking at the trees covered in the ice - it is a real pretty site... until you turn around and see 5+ branches have broken off because of the weight of the ice and you don't EVEN want to go and look out at the fences to see if any of these heavy branches fell onto those cause that just means you have to tell your husband that fences are broken once again and need to be fixed.... and it's cold.
Just another day :)
I can't believe it - New Years Eve - I'm on my way out of the house to go to our neighbors house to sit back, relax, and say Happy New Year...... and a high pitched WAIL comes from the barn area. The wild wind shut a door and the goats were locked in where the hay is but couldn't get to the barn so OF COURSE someone decides to give birth.....
Shelly gave birth to triplet boys in the freezing windy weather. I get her and two of the kids in the barn. I didn't know/see the third one until it was almost dead. Got it brought it into my bathroom to warm up. An hour later, Joe brings in one of the other ones as it was frozen.
We lost the first boy I brought in. But the one Joe brought in is still in my house and doing well as a bottle baby. I never thought I would have a goat running around my house!
The third boy stayed with Shelly, his mom, the next day his back legs had frozen straight out over night - even being under a heat lamp. We thawed his legs out and now Sunday, 3 days later, he seems to be doing well just weak legs - but he's learning to use them just fine.
Today we also had another goat give birth. After church there was 1 out there and I will check again in the afternoon to see how many more she had (I think she will have 1 more).
Personally I feel like a new mom with the baby goat in the house! Last night I was up every couple of hours and he was driving me NUTS. It's time for my nap and to feed the baby.
Tomorrow is my birthday.... I'm turning (ack) 36. Right now I am sitting here and looking at a Christmas tree set up - and realizing it's the first time in my small history I have EVER put up a Christmas tree before my birthday - even though the kids big me every year to do it.
Here are some other odd thoughts that pass through my head as I think about the last 5 years. I chose 5 years because we have been here on the farm 3 year. So 2 years before that I was busy selling on eBay as my full-time job. Both kids were in school and I was ok with that. We lived in suburbia, I drove a fancy Land Cruiser *should have kept that*..... and life was good. If you had told me I would be farming, homeschooling, and even becoming Catholic in a few years I probably would have thought you were drunk or something - because that would NEVER happen in my little life.
Now - here I sit, in front of a lit tree noting that I am doing all those things and my life is actually better for it. We actually spend family time together and ENJOY it (though there are days where I say yeah right!)......we talk more..... we do more things together.... and amazingly - we listen more.
The whole farming thing - well shoot - that honestly blew up around us because of our wonderful customers. But I wouldn't change anything about it. Ok - some days I would - I mean - can't the chickens just feed themselves and let themselves out today - IT'S COLD!!!! Goofy stuff like that. But then you look out my window and you can't help but notice how blessed we have been.
Another year passes away...... and with a life like this - you can't WAIT to see what happens during the next year.
Ok everyone - I just wanted to let you know - I do not like the cold. Especially since it's NOVEMBER!!! I don't want all my waters frozen.... I don't want to have to take out warm water to defrost the water pumps. Just don't want to do this all yet. Oh well - we do need the freezing temps to kill a lot of the bugs that devestated Joe's gardens this past summer - but still.... 19 degrees?!?! Come on!!
OK that's my whining farming moment for the day.
Actually this time of year everything slows down - but we do start getting ready for babies soon. Unbelievable huh? But it's true! I think one of our goats will have kids in December or early January. Sheep start giving birth in January - none in February this year so we are actually taking that month off.
It's the season to start planning of next season. What a cycle it is :)
I have got to tell you all about this fencing we have. Ok - it's not new - we've used it for the past year + with the chickens. This year though we have started moving around the goats and the electric fence ROCKS!!!
We are using 2 units (196ft each) for the 7 big meat goats and 1 unit for the nigerian dwarf goats.
Right now we are running extension cords and plugging in the charger - but I would love to have a battery type unit that would shock them enough.
I think next year we might move some chickens around the same way - using the fence and therefore we could FINALLY use the back field for something other than weed production.
If anyone wants to take a look at it - visit: http://www.premier1supplies.com/fencing.php?mode=detail&fence_id=30
It's pretty cool and comes recommended by ME :)
Well it's been a few weeks and I think I'm recovered at this point. Our schedule seems to be getting back to normal which makes life a lot smoother.
The farm tour went really well - it's the 1st time I heard back from so many people telling me they had a great time and really enjoyed coming out. Usually I'll get a comment or 2 DURING the farm tour - but I'm talking about comments after the fact. What a wonderful feeling it is to know that people like coming out here. We do feel blessed with this farm - even though some days are "whew!" and tiring.
So far I know we have about 5 goats who should start giving birth in December. Sheep as well if I am correct. So I get a month "off" and then we watch every day to see what happened. FUN!!!!! Seriously - watching baby goats is a great joy - they are just too dang cute.
We ended up losing a TON of turkeys. Huge learning curve there - and now they will end up being Christmas turkeys instead of Thanksgiving because the ones that survived are the smaller ones (2 week difference from the others). This was upsetting to me - but what can you do? They seemed to get extremely stressed with the move from 1 pen to another and then said "Oh I can't take this - I guess I'll die!" and then the stress from watching other turkeys die - hey I guess I'll do the same thing - boom dead. Odd type of bird.
Oh well - we'll trudge on. This afternoon I move the goats to a new area that we need "cleaned up" from weeds and other stuff. But they love it so they can go out there. Should be interesting on how much they eat and how far we can move them. We need more electricity around the farm ;) Solar and battery backs can be used - but they don't seem to give enough "zap" to the goats. No idea why - maybe mine are just stubborn.
Off to work with the kids and school :)
Friday, January 9, 2009