Winter Kids!

I knew I was going to need winter milk for all of the small children in our home.  So In July, I bred Amelia to Sergent Pepperbox and Milky Whey to Major Coco.  I put them in with the bucks and saw them both in standing heat the same day.  Their due date was December 23rd.  The 23rd came and went.  Finally on December 27th, early in the morning, Milky Whey delivered triplets.  Two beautiful bucklings and a very nice doeling.  Milky Whey had a very easy delivery and the babies are all very big and strong. 

This huge buckling was born first.  He looks like someone dunked his front half in black paint!

This flashy little buckling was born last.  He is very sweet and colorful.  Black, White and brown!

This little doeling was born second.  She is large and spunky.  I am partial to black and white goats.  I am retaining her.

Milky Whey is milking nicely.  This is her third kidding and she is my very best, pure bred Nigerian Dwarf goat.  She has long teats with large orifices.  She has a very nice, large, well attached, udder and her personality is as sweet as her wonderful milk.  She is already giving almost half a gallon a day.  I am going to retain her doeling this year as circumstances have prevented me in the past from retaining one of hers and this years doe is exquisite.

We knew Amelia was bred the same day as Milky Whey and have been playing the waiting game.  They both went over due.  But Amelia went days more.  All I can say is that she must not have settled the first breeding and got bred her next heat cycle.  I left them in with their bucks for a few weeks so it is very possible. 

Yesterday morning (1-2-16) when I went out to the barn, Amelia was in labor and within a half hour, had delivered two very large and flashy doelings!  I have a waiting list of people wanting goats from my herd, so these already have homes to go to.  I will de-horn (dis-bud) them all tomorrow, as I was waiting to dehorn Milky Whey's kids till Amelia's were born.

The first one born was a huge brown doe with white markings.  The second one was very flashy with frosted ears and lots of white marbling. 

This is Amelia's second freshening, she is milking very well and has a very nice udder. Her udder is very high, round and well attached.  Her teats are very easy to hand milk.  I only keep easy to hand milk animals. The very best of the best produced here.

I don't feel badly culling hard, so I can always have healthy good producers here.  I sold Jubilee after she freshened in the spring, as she was a good milker but I had so many just a bit better.  I did retain her daughter from the spring.  Carolyn named her daughter Carmel Pie.  Her dad is Sergent Pepperbox and I wanted to see what his genetics do to improve over Jubilee's.  We shall see, as Carmel Pie is in to be bred with a buck now.

Wishing everyone a happy New Year and hope you are having fun planing for the spring plantings.

Happy Farming!

susan 

Amelia's Baby!

Our little ornamental peach tree in full bloom!

Just when I think I have this farming thing down I get a curve ball. 

On Saturday morning I checked our three pregnant goats.  They all ate their breakfast well.  (Sometimes a goat won't eat if they are in labor.)  Amelia and MiniBell did not seem to be in labor at all and went out to graze... but Milky Whey seemed a bit uncomfortable.  She kept getting up and down and changing position alot.  Often a sign of labor.   Her udder was full and tight and her ligament had been very loose for a day or so already.   So, I had Carolyn go out, check on her and observe her every hour.  About the third time Carolyn went out to check, she came running in saying... Milky Whey was fine but Amelia had her baby!  We had not even been checking anyone in that pen! 

It is Amelia's first time to be a mom...

and she had one very healthy, adorable, sturdy buckling.

He looks a lot like her!

I took him away, milked out Amelia and bottle fed him the colostrum.  We will be selling this little guy as soon as I am sure he is nursing well and dehorned.

Amelia is one of my experiment crossbreed goats.  She was the daughter of one of my wonderful full sized La Mancha milkers, Twinkie, and a very good Nigerian buck.  Her udder is nice for a first freshener and her teats a good length for hand milking.  She gave about 20 ounces of colostrum and is milking about the same amount morning and night right now but her milk has not come fully in yet. 

Her full sister, Mini Bell, is due any day, as well as I guess, a very uncomfortable Milky Whey.  So... busy, spring, farm life has started back at full throttle.  I will be milking three goats twice a day once they have all freshened.  The only baby I might keep this year is a baby out of  Milky Whey, if she has a strapping large doe born to her.

I love spring on a farm.  The trees are getting buds and little green leaves.  The grass is growing.  My dad and William are supposed to mow this after noon for the first time this year.

First tulip of the year in my yard about to bloom!

First asparagus!

Garden helper and inspector.

I pray all is going well on your little patch of ground where ever you are around the world.

Blessings and Happy Farming!
susan

A Beautiful Springish Day!

Today was a beautiful day.  It felt just like a perfect temperature spring day.  We had to take the day off from home schooling and go out into it.  I cleaned out many of my raised beds and started preparing them for planting.  William and Zeke helped me with two of them, we got a lot done.

I had planted two of these barrels with bunching onions late last summer and wow did they grow and get happy thru the winter.  I have been harvesting them as I need them in the kitchen and they just keep multiplying.

We had a few unusually harsh spells this winter.  Much of the things I could usually winter over outside died.  But while I was cleaning all the dead stalks out of the mint bed there were little new mint leaves emerging!  So we still have mint!

I also cleaned out all the dead ferns from the asparagus bed and found this two inch tall little guy.  ;)

I am planning on making a chick order this week.  I am still sticking with White Leghorns.  As they work the best for our large family on our tight budget.  The feed to egg ratio just can't be beat.  I always keep 2 or 3 Silkies around for hatching out eggs as well.

Our chicken area has not had a break from chickens for at least 13 years.  So we decided to get a whole new flock this go around and give away our current flock in a month or so and let that whole area have a good rest.  While it is empty, we will repair any fencing and the coop in places and clean and disinfect things really well.

In the goat area of our farm we are eagerly expecting kids soon!  I gave away my goats that were in milk last fall so have had the first break in many years in milking.  I have missed the fresh milk but on this particularly colder than normal winter, I was grateful most  mornings not to go out and sit and milk twice a day.

Milky Whey should freshen first.  She was much wider than this but as you can see in the second picture her babies have dropped down almost into position.  :)

I think the next one that will freshen is MiniBell.  She and her sister Amelia are a mid-sized goat.  A cross between a full sized LaMancha and a Nigerian Dwarf buck.  It is both Mini Bells and Amelia's  first freshening and I can't wait to milk them.  Mini Bells first new little udder is coming down and growing as her due date approaches.  No, she is not about to get sick.  I could not get her to stop following me so I could photograph her so pulled some privet down for her to eat.  I caught her with her mouth open!

 Her little udder, growing larger every day.  I am very happy with the teat length of both her and her sister.  Great size for hand milking.

Amelia is Mini Bells twin sister.  (Amelia was born with the Nigerian Dwarf ears.)  Amelia must have been bred a bit later as her tummy is not quite as big.  She would not hold still either.  Here she is battling for privet with her sister.

 Amelia's udder is just coming in now.

I really want to get Calfy bred for fall/winter milk but she has not come into heat at all.  Neither has the other goat I was wanting to breed for then, Plenty.  I might get a break from milking again next winter if I don't get one or both of them bred soon!

Here is Calfy.  Very curious about my cell phone camera.

I really love goats and think that they are wonderful creatures.  They have great personalities.  Especially when bottle raised.  They are very functional on a small farm for forage control, fertilizer, meat and milk.  Great little animals!

Pray your spring farm planning is going well!

Blessings and Happy Farming!

susan

 

Unusual Winter

We have had some very unusual weather this winter.  It has not only been unusually rainy but quite a bit colder as well.  We also have had three substantial snowfalls.  In a normal winter we might see a few snow flakes a few times or get a dusting of snow. 

The end of January we got this.

Since it had been several years since we have had snow like this, I gave the children off from home schooling and let them just play in it.  Here where we live in Georgia a snow like this will usually be gone by the next day or two.  It was a dryish snow and not packy enough for a snowman but the kids had fun out in it throwing it at each other and playing around.

Then Tuesday of this past week we got this snow fall of about four or five inches.

It was a wetter snow and the kids made this little guy.

Even though there was not a huge amount the children had a good time and had fun.

Some of it melted on Wednesday but that night we got sleet and then five or six inches of snow more, so woke up Thursday to this! 

It was breathtakingly beautiful for the Deep South to see and believe it or not was nearly all gone by the end of the day!  I never remember us having this much snow at one time since we have lived here on the farm for the last 15 years.  The ice that we got before the snow came this time made the snow stick to the trees, fences and electric wires.  Many people lost power from this storm.  We had it go out for only two hours in the morning. 

As far as farm life right now???  I gave away my two full sized milkers to a friend.  So I am actually not milking at all right now.  I don't ever remember having such a break in milking.  The children miss the fresh goats milk terribly but I have enjoyed the break from milking.  I have not had to go out twice a day in this weather to milk but must admit I am missing making cheese and foods from the cheese for my family.  Our first goats possible due date is the end of this month.

When Milky Whey came into heat last fall, I put her in with Sergent Pepper box.  If she settled her due date is around Feb 24th.  But she came back into a light heat a few weeks later.  I knew I would be needing milk and she would be my first of the year to freshen, so I put her in with an experienced buck, Joseph.  So if she did not settle the first time she will be the first to kid in March.  I also bred Amelia...this will be her first freshening and her sister Mini Bell, this will be her first freshening as well.  They are my experiment goats, the offspring of my full sized La manchas and a Nigerian Dwarf buck.  Hoping to have a happy medium in amount of feed they consume and amount of milk they give.  I am very excited.

I am getting the urge to have chicks in the barn and start my gardens.  So I guess spring is around the corner!

Blessings and Happy Farming!
susan

Freezing to Flooding

Our winter this year has went from unusually cold temps to flooding. 

We live in the North Georgia Mountains but in a lower portion in the mountains.  A little dip or valley.  All of the excess water from rain runs to us and down our property when the water table is up and the ground is saturated and has reached its limit.  We usually get flooded at least once a year in the spring time.  But after having much cooler temperatures this winter and even a dip down to 4 degrees one night and 7 another night, we have now gotten a lot of rain on top of it.  Our temperatures are still going to freezing many nights or lower but  now we are quite soggy.

During that very cold spell where night temperatures were so low we did loose a young goat.  The little goat that had polio last year and survived by a miracle, Pacer.  I brought him and his field buddy up out of the fields for the cold snap and made them comfy in a barn stall but surprisingly he still could not handle those temperatures.  We found him down and cold but still alive.  If you put your finger in the mouth of a goat and inside its mouth is cold when they are down, the only way to quickly rise their core temperature is to immerse them in warm water, slowly adding warmer and warmer water till they are warmed up.  We brought him in the house and tried this.  I have successfully done this with chilled kids that were born unexpectedly in winter and were dying but we worked on this goat for hours and he did not  make it.  Bless his heart.

Here are some pictures of our farm from the heavy rains we have had recently.

Water pouring down our drive way from the hill behind the barn.

Flooding down by the manure pile. Yuck!  William could not believe I was taking pictures of him by it and was laughing about it.

Water running across our fields and to our pond.

This is a picture I took of my daughter last spring.  You can see where the dock is compared to the normal water level of the pond.  Our dock is anchored with T-Posts for times when we have flooding.

 This is where the dock is with this flooding.  The road around the pond is even flooded.

When we get flooded like this, this is the only time our pond has and inlet and and outlet!

Inlet.

Outlet.  Right across the road behind it.

Looks like we are going to continue to have a wet/colder than normal winter!

Blessings and Happy farming!
susan

Good-bye Bluebell and Twinkie

We have been working hard at cutting costs and evaluating what we do around here to produce and bring forth food.  Grain is very high and just keeps going up.  I am getting older and can not work the way I did around here when I was younger and although I have a lot of children to help, we all have a lot to do each day and I try to make things as easy as possible on everyone. 

At our yearly family meeting we talked and brainstormed about what we needed around here and what we don't.  What things might improve how much work we do and how much  money we spend.  We talk about it not only in relation to our little farm but in our home as well.  Money is always tight with a family like ours.  Carolyn made the decision that she no longer had interest in raising geese so she made the decision to find homes for her four American Buff geese.  Our farrier had always showed interest in them so we called him and he seemed very happy to get them.  That decision has made Carolyn's work load smaller and will bring our feed cost down a little.   We don't feed them hardly at all in the summer when the grass and bugs are abundant but in the winter months we have to supplement.  So this will save on feed costs. 

We also had been doing the Great Goat Experiment.  Slowly, over the last several years, I have been moving our herd over from full sized Nubian and Lamancha Dairy Goats to the smaller Nigerian Dwarfs.  I had heard and read about the milk to feed ratio being so much better and I must say it is really true.  They don't need fed at all, if on good pasture, unless they are being milked.  And the amount of feed they need to produce a fair amount of milk is very good.  (I do have to share and say, I did buy from very good milk lines though, from disease free reputable Nigerian dairy goat farms)   It is always worth doing research and buying the best you can afford in my opinion, as they are an investment and give you good stock to work with in your breeding program.  I feel anyone who breeds any animal should try to better the animal they have and not just breed to have milk or pretty babies. 

I had hung onto my very best two, full sized Lamanchas, (Bluebell and Twinkie) just as a back up and just in case we didn't really like the smaller milk goats.  I have found the mid-sized crosses and full blooded Nigerians very easy to handle with my balance issues and am enjoying them very much.  They do give a good amount of milk as well with a smaller amount of grain.  Also, we no longer need gallons of milk a day, so these smaller goats are better for us in that area as well.  The other reason why I was keeping my two favorite full sized girls was because they were special to my dad and myself.  Very personalble sweet girls the results of years of breeding.  I had plans on just retireing them out here in the pastrue.  I soon saw that I was going to have to grain them to keep them in good body condition, plus the amount of work to care for extra animals that are no longer producing was going to be more on everyone.  (an extra stall to muck, extra hay to buy in the winter, and grain year round)  I had a talk with my dad and he agreed to let me give them to a friend.  (A close friend who has retired out goats for me before)  I know I can trust him and his wife to care for them well and keep them together.  Also should I ever want a baby out of either of them I know he would work with me.  I bred them for him before sending them over to his farm with his choice of buck.  It was yesterday he picked them up.  A very hard and sad decision for us all.  It helped a lot to know they were going to such a good place.

I by our feed once a month.  In that once a month order is every farm animals food from goats to cats and dogs.  For the last several years it has run me around $400.00 a month for all the feed.  Plus we have needed to buy between 100 to 150 hay bales a year depending on drought and what condition our fields are in for grazing.  (that is Bermuda square bales)  This is not counting round bales for ponies.  As I have sold off my larger goats and these smaller Nigerians have grown into adults, our feed bill has fluxed here and there.  But slowly come down.  I knew the last two large goats would be picked up soon so only bought what grain I knew I needed for the Nigrians and mid sized goats we have now and rest of the farm animals.  My feed bill was 198.00.  I am amazed.  I have not had a monthly bill that low in a long time.  I also had bought 100 bales of hay last year for winter and had 50 left still this year!  So I only had to buy 40 bales to full up our hay mow this year.  So all in all.  I know I might have to milk two goats instead of one if I need more milk for some reason or another.  But,  for our family...this has been a very worth while move and I am very happy with how the Great Goat Experiment has turned out.  Praise God for His wisdom and help.

On another non-related note... we have two ponies. 

We put them up into stalls at night with outside access.  Millie the black one is pretty much unflappable.  Nothing spooks her to much.  Even a dog running up barking will not usually faze her.  Two days ago the children went out to do their chores and Millie was not in her stall.  The children called me out and we found her in one of the goat upper pacocks.  As we got to looking something spooked her badly in the night.  She knocked down the fencing in between her pen and the goat pen next door totally sheering off, at the ground, a green metal T post!  

The below picture is after we started to pull up the piece broke off in the ground with a crow-bar.

I can not believe it. Metal T-post!!!  Snapped right off.  Then she was still so spooked she kept going and went over the hog panel of the next paddock.  Bending it down in the shape of her tummy.

That stuff is tough stuff!  We found her in the next paddock which is much larger and I guess she got calmed down once in there.  I am still amazed.  Totally amazed that praise be to God, she was not hurt at all!

Life is never dull here on the farm that is for sure!

Blessings and happy farming,
susan