Okay, so Dear Hubby calls me at work today to ask which goats are the ones getting out and what am I going to do about it…HUH? Evidently he had gone outside to fine the doe berries littering the driveway. They’re not nearly as bad as cow pies but not something you want to walk through on the way to the car. As you may recall, a while ago I wrote about our fencing adventures. I’ve been researching since last summer what types of fence work best for goats, knowing that we would need something this summer to contain our herd. After reading everything I could find and talking to folks who have owned goats I decided that the most effective and affordable option would be a 6-strand electrified high tensile fence or a woven wire (sheep) fence with an offset hot wire to prevent the girls from rubbing on the fence. I shared this information with my resident fencing expert (husband) and asked what I needed to do to help. He said he’d take care of it with the help of his part time helpers.
Finally after about a month of letting the girls out to graze in the yard without fencing because I was completely out of hay to feed them, Bill put up the fence. Four strands of electrified smooth wire. I had my doubts about this but I was desperate, as were my flower gardens and apple trees!
To my surprise, the girls stayed in the fence, with the exception of the renegade babies who could sneak through the fence without getting a shock. This worked great, for about a week. Pretty soon one or two of the mama’s would sneak out, then a few more. We fixed short in the fence which slowed them down for a little but eventually the urge to graze the flower beds was greater than the fear of being shocked. I just came to accept the fact that my flowers were done for the year and I would have to put the goats in every night before bed (and pray that they could keep off the road and not get hit!) I figured we’d have another go at it next year and just make do for the time being.
You can probably imagine my surprise when my husband, the former dairy farmer, master of manure, asked me how I was going to fix this problem. If it bothered anybody to have a few pellets on the driveway, it should be me! For the first three years of our marriage I tolerated globs of manure on the driveway that fell off the spreader when it was emptied daily. Often our driveway was so soupy with mud and tire tracks that I was afraid I wouldn’t make it to the house, now he complains of some goat poop?
Okay, so as if complaining about my goats getting out of the fence that he designed and installed wasn’t enough, he went on to express how embarrassed he was with the condition of the house and surrounding yard. “Something needs to be done”, he says. Whoa now, hold your horses! I know I don’t keep the house as nice as I should. I used to be much better at keeping things neat. The problem is, when you bust your butt to get things cleaned up then awake to find a whole new mess left by the one who came home in the middle of the night, the desire to attempt to keep things clean begins to disappear. Messy houses used to bother me but I’ve learned to tolerate it, there are bigger things to worry about and more productive things to do than clean a house that never looks clean anyway. I figure he didn’t seem to appreciate it when I did keep the house nice, why would I knock myself out trying to keep things nice now when I have two children to take care of and rarely spend any time in the house at all! AAAARRRRRGHHHHH!
So what am I to do? This phone call completely ruined my day. I was actually being pretty productive but now my thoughts are consumed with what I can do to do a better job keeping things in order at home. This is shear torture when sitting at a desk at work where I really can do nothing about it but let my head spin from angry to guilty to just plain feeling like a domestic failure. I could take a week of vacation and get things all back to a civilized state. That would fix things for a little while. I think the underlying problem is that I have about three hours a day to get done the things I need to do in the house, plus take care of the kids and the animals and very rarely do I actually get help with the house work. In my three precious hours I need to make dinner, feed the kids and clean up dinner, do chores and tend to any urgent repairs or treatments that can’t wait for the weekend, harvest anything ready in the garden before it spoils, bathe the kids and put them to bed. If all that goes well I’ll have about one hour to myself to spend on additional tasks such as cleaning, exercising, folding clothes, organizing, computer work, etc. And that’s only if the first list went well.
So, I need some help. Working mothers out there, how do you do it? Is it too much to rely on a husband to do some housework (more-so than the occasional emptying the dishwasher or starting a load of laundry), or at least to clean up after himself? The thought has crossed my mind that I could get rid of my animals but I would be heartbroken. Besides that’s how I get the kids out of the house to prevent them from messing it up even more. We love to “play” in the barn and they don’t fight as much when they’re watching and playing with the animals. I would rather move into the barn with the animals than get rid of them!
My rant could go on but I’ve learned that it doesn’t solve the problem. (Which is why I don’t usually do it.) I guess I’m just looking for sympathy or something, or maybe something along the lines of someone to come clean my house for me, maybe hypnotize my husband to become a cleaning machine. Maybe just a suggestion for a good cleaning lady who doesn’t mind picking up after a messy and increasingly anal husband.
So, what is it about dogs? Bill and I are not “dog people” If you don’t know what I mean by that you probably are one, no offense intended, we just prefer to keep our “awwww, cutsey wootsies” to ourselves. We do appreciate having a good dog around. To us a good dog is one that can follow us while doing chores but not get in the way. A dog that knows he belongs outside but respectfully appreciates the times when he’s allowed in the house. A good dog barks at strange vehicles coming in the driveway but never at the resident vehicles. He will approach a strange vehicle barking the whole way but give a friendly sniff (and not in the inappropriate place) when the occupant comes out. Most of all, a good dog is loyal, sees the place as his property to guard and doesn’t run off.
When Bill and I got married we had a good dog, no, an awesome dog. Shelly was a cross between a lab and a golden retriever and possessed the best traits of both breeds. She was smart, loyal and listened well. Our farm was her home and there she stayed. She was a great hunter but not so crazy about it as to turn dumb when in the field. Her one vise was bathing in stinky mud holes or sloppy cattle lots then expecting to get petted. Shelly lived a good hard life as a farm dog and finally passed away about five years ago.
Shelly’s companion dog was Gus, a black lab. Gus and I didn’t get along and since he is now dead I try not to talk too bad about him. He was a good dog too (for Bill) but he liked to go visit the in-laws down the road. They didn’t appreciate it much but are now paying us back with occasional visits from their horse of a dog, Shep. We lost Gus about two years ago to an infection that eventually made him go blind. He too lived a good, hard life.
After Gus died we were dogless for a while and I missed the warning barks when visitors came. Stray cats started moving in and raccoons were no longer cautious about venturing close to the house. Every farm needs a dog, especially every farm with a hunter on it. We tried a few other dogs after Gus, older dogs, puppies a couple different breeds, nothing worked out. Finally, a friend realized our situation and gave us Sunny our yellow lab. She has been such a wonderful dog, friendly, awesome hunter, protective. She is very much like Shelly was.
This spring we discovered that Sunny also has a vice, any time she can find a friend, she goes exploring. She doesn’t just explore the farm, she explores the neighborhood which lead to the problem of the puppies. (And yes, that will be permanently fixed two weeks from now.) Don’t get me wrong, Sunny gave us some fine puppies. We decided to keep one to train as Sunny’s replacement as the day will inevitably come when Sunny can no longer perform her farm dog duties.
We kept a sweet little girl, Della. Della is learning how to be a great farm dog, she’s such a sweet heart, a good little puppy. One big problem, now that Sunny has a resident buddy, they take off to explore anytime we leave them alone together! What’s up with this?
We’re beginning to realize that sometimes if you want a good dog you can only have one dog. Any time we’ve tried to put two dogs together it seems as if they share each other’s worst habits and become absolutely useless as farm dogs. So Bill and I made a tough decision this week, Della needs to go. We want to keep her in the worst way but we know that if we do both dogs will be worthless to us and a burden to the neighbors. In order to keep Sunny we have to part with Della.
So now the search begins again. We’re looking for a great home for our little girl. If you’re interested or know of someone who is, please let us know.
There is such a huge difference between the amount of work that goes into renting a dwelling place and owning one. Somebody’s going to call me on this so I’ll put my disclaimer here. One might say that I wouldn’t know the difference since we don’t technically own our place. That’s right, we’re squatters. We live in our place, keep the cows and everything else there but we don’t own it or pay rent. Nice, huh? In some ways, yes. We have, however put countless dollars and man hours into fixing things up on the place all of which benefits us but also increases the value of the property. The time is fast approaching when we will purchase the land. As with any major sale of farm property, the current owner will need to offset the income he receives from the sale with another major purchase to avoid a huge capital gains tax payment. We’re just waiting for all the players to fall into place.
Okay, so that said I can continue as if we do own our farm since that’s how we treat the place. Anybody who owns their home will surly agree; there’s always something to do. There’s yardwork, home maintenance, new projects, always something. Now, add a few acres of farmstead, half a dozen out buildings and 70 or so acres of pasture…it’s really more that the average person with a 40 hour work week should be expected to maintain. Yet this is what we’ve subjected ourselves to, and we love it. We wouldn’t give up our farm life for anything, we need the animals in our lives. Since both Bill and I are blessed with excellent jobs, we can’t exactly give them up either. So we do both and it makes for some busy weekends.
During the week both Bill and I have just enough time to do our daily chores in addition to our other jobs. For Bill this means doing paperwork, making phone calls (yes, this is work), checking the cattle, filling mineral feeders, treating cows if necessary, fixing fences, waterers and anything else that is broken, maintaining vehicles and any other critical project that comes up. For myself, there’s the kids (the ones with two legs), for the most part they are my responsibility. Dress them, feed them bathe them and break up their fights. They’re old enough now that they can more or less play by themselves while I do my other chores. They love climbing on the old stalls in the barn, playing on their swings or in the sandbox and going on “nature walks” as long as they can pack snacks! While they explore I tend my animals; check the goats, feed the chickens, bunnies, ducks, and geese, clean and fill waterers, try to get ahead of the weeds in the garden and if I’m lucky, reap a small harvest from the garden to be used for our supper. As you can imagine, there’s not a lot of time during the week for those “extra” projects that occupy our plans to have a more efficient and beautiful operation. That’s what our weekends are for.
So this weekend, as always, I had lofty goals, the main goal being fixing up pens for the poultry and waterfowl. Most of the summer my birds have been free ranging. It sounds nice and certainly has its benefits, it you’re willing to put up with poo all over the place. Geese are the absolute worst. These are the most strict vegetarians of all my birds and they leave the biggest and most numerous piles- everywhere. Yea, we got tired of it so I had to fix up the pens.
My Ducks and geese got a new pen alongside my garden where they can keep the rabbits and weeds away and I can easily feed them greens from my harvest. They also have the important job of keeping the weeds down under the raspberry canes and around my apple trees. We discovered this technique a couple years ago when we kept chickens in the garden. They did such a wonderful job cleaning up under the raspberries that I decided I needed a permanent pen there. I’m not sure if the waterfowl will do as good as the chickens but I can always switch them out if need be. Here’s a schematic of the new garden layout:
There is welded wire fence around the entire garden with an additional fence separating the waterfowl pen from the rest of the garden. (Ashlee, this is my first step toward a complete “chicken moat.” See http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1988-05-01/The-Chicken-Moat-Enclosure.aspx for details)
My project to keep the chickens in was a little less-involved. I just had to fix up the fort-knox-style coop I originally built. We had to take one end of it down to get the bulk tank out of the milkhouse this spring and I just never got around to fixing it up. I’ve temporarily fixed it by replacing the wire on one end with some extra welded wire from the garden project. I won’t consider it completely finished until I bury it in the gravel to prevent critters from digging underneath. I’m considering some other upgrades to this coop anyway so until I decide exactly what I want, this temporary fix will have to do. So, my hens are no longer free range meaning I have to actually feed them (instead of letting them steal food from the other critters) but they’ll be much safer and probably happier. And best of all, no more poo all over the yard!
Looking back at the list I made for myself on Friday afternoon, there are many things that I did not accomplish. I may try to work on those a bit this week otherwise they will have to wait until another weekend. With that, here are some parting thoughts as to why I love the farm life despite the never ending hard work.
The heavy, humid, late July evening air has a way of accentuating the scent of corn pollen as the tassels begin to open up to fertilize the ears below. Jack noticed this last night and commented “hey, it smells like corn out here”
As the corn tassels emerge, the field starts to look like it has a fuzzy covering on it, and it smells good!
Keeping up the goat fence seems to be a never-ending job. Since we turned the girls out to their pasture, we’ve known that there is a gap in the fence down by the hay shed. We wanted to let the cows have access to the goat pasture to help knock down the tall weeds and branches. The goats have now become aware of this opening and head straight for it when they get up to graze in the morning. It doesn’t take long before they’re grazing right along the road. In many places this would be a goat death-sentence but where we live, it’s not a big deal. There’s just not that much traffic on our road!
For the same reason I don’t worry too much about the kids playing by themselves around the farm. Granted there are plenty of dangers but having grown up with them, the kids are quite aware and keep close watch over each other. I also don’t worry too much about them wandering off…There aren’t many places to go!
Just where do you think you're going?
And finally, my once-beautiful garden, worthy of any corner lot in town has become a favorite snack for the baby goats when they sneak between the fence wires. As I was looking at this yesterday I had to laugh. If a dog or a calf or a child had done this I would have been furious. For some reason knowing it was the goat kids made it okay. They are such a joy that I’m willing to put up with THIS just to keep them around. I’m thinking that a major overhaul, and temporary fencing, may be in order this fall though!
Before- notice the lilacs just beginning to bloom?
On that note, I leave you with a verse our pastor referred to in church on Sunday. It comes from Matthew chapter 25. Here Matthew describes Jesus’ allegory of how the nations will be judged when He returns:
31 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
32 "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
33 "And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left…
41 "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Anybody who has ever raised goats knows why Jesus used goats to represent those nations who choose to go about their own path and refuse to follow the Lord. It makes me want to sing the song my sister-in-law,
I don't know what it is about a day of working hard that just makes me feel good. Maybe it's because with my "real" job the most strenuous work I do is stuffing envelopes, really, no kidding! By the time I get home in the evening my brain has turned to mush and I really have just enough time to throw some food on the table and do the daily chores. So, it should go without saying, by the time the weekend rolls around I'm ready to do something physically productive.
It's usually necessary too. With so many projects on the farm, I generally enter a weekend with a laundry list of things that need to get done (laundry included). This past weekend was no different. On the list for Saturday was weed pulling, digging potatoes and garlic, vaccinating and tatooing goat kids and preparing some pens for breeding. All this had to be done in the morning because I promised my mom that I would act as a sommelier (the wine server) for a dinner party she was planning for the evening.
Fortunately Bill was home so he was able to sleep in with the kids, they needed it after a week of late nights. And I went out *by myself* 
to get some work done. First was the goat babies. They were all due for their second round of vaccinations and I had to finishe the tattoo job I had started when I gave the first round of shots. I had unfortunately lost my letter "C" after tattooing the first goat that time around. Since every goat kid needed AOC in their ear I had to replace it before I could finish the job! Despite having no good way to pen up my goat kids and keep them contained until they're worked, this task went off pretty well. I only have nine baby goats so I can still keep track of who's been done or not. That will change next year when I have 8 does kidding at the same time!
Next on the list for the morning was digging potatoes and weeding the garden. THis chore too went off without a hitch, for the most part.
If you look next to the milk can in this picture you'll see my problem. With two rows left to dig, my favorite potato fork gave out on me. I had to finish with a spade which was a little harder but I got it done, nonetheless. I am now in the market for a new potato fork.
After the potatoes I finished up the garlic and loaded everything in my garden cart to cure in the garage.
I typically allow the potatoes and garlic to sit in a cool, dark area for a week for the skins to cure. This makes them more durable for cleaning and storage. One year I tried to scrub the potatoes right after I dug them and the skins rubbed right off! This procedure seems to prevent that problem. This weekend I'll clean everything up a little more and store them in the root cellar. The potatoes usually keep through half the winter this way. Bill and I are going to try something else with them this fall. Using the dirt auger we're going to dig a deep hole and store the potatoes in sacks in the hole, cover it up and hopefully we can get them to last a little longer. I've also heard that putting an apple with the potatoes will help to keep them from sprouting, so I may try that too.
After all of this digging I was exhausted. It was getting to be a little warm out and I probably over did it a little. Despite having an awful headache from heat and dehydration, just the fact that I was able to get something done made me feel good. I was also able to pull enough weeds to find my beets and pumpkin plants in the garden. There are still plenty remaining. I've been using them to supplement by goats that are on hay right now. The breeding pens are coming along. Tabitha and Thunder, our pygmies are now "marrying" 
according to my kids. Sugar Daddy currently has two wives living with him. We'll be expecting babies as early as Christmas this year.
The next weekend is fast approaching and the list is already forming. Fall will be here before we know it, have you seen the back to school sales already? I have a lot to do in the barn before I can bring the girls in from pasture, including cleaning out the bedding pack from last winter! I'm planning to make better use of the space in the barn by taking out the old tie stalls and filling the gutter. There's so much to do before winter! I certainly won't be doing too much relaxing these coming weekends!
Both!
Well, not really. But we think everybody is a winner in this situation. We decided that we couldn't part with Della. She's just too sweet, and really a mama's girl. Jake, however is such a fine dog we knew we needed a special home for him too. Enter brother Josh.
Bill's brother Josh visited us this past weekend from Nashville. It didn't take long for him to decide that he needed a puppy. Bill and Josh went to Fleet Farm while he was here to pick up all the puppy necessities including a MONSTROUS dog crate. Jake even voluntarily slept in it the night before they left for Nashville. I know they'll be happy together. As a bonus we're looking forward to seeing Jake when they come back for hunting this fall!
Here are a couple parting shots of the pair before Jake went to his new home.
Huntin'
Mama and babies, takin' it easy
Della, after Jake left...not really, she's actually getting along just fine. She's enjoying lots of quality time with her mom. I think Sunny likes having a playmate too!
In the middle of March this year, our beloved yellow lab, Sunny, disappeared from our farm place. It happened in the night. She was out with me in the evening helping with chores and when I went to do the same in the morning, she was gone. As Bill returned home from the night shift and as I was leaving for work I mentioned to him that Sunny was not around. For two days we drove around the neighborhood in the morning and in the evening, seeking information from any neighbor we could find. Nobody had seen her. We’d heard stories of people stealing dogs to sell them to research companies and the like and we began to fear that this had been Sunny's fate. Then a call came. Sunny had been spotted with another dog just across the section at the neighbor’s house.
What a relief! Bill rushed over but by the time he got there the pair was gone. For the next three days we played a game of cat and mouse. By this time most of the neighborhood knew about our missing dog and they were on the lookout. From time to time a call would come saying that they spotted Sunny and the other dog here or there but they were always gone by the time we got there. This is very out of character for Sunny. She is so friendly she would walk up to anyone. It seems that when a dog gets in the running mode they become a different animal, taking on feral characteristics and living on instinct.
This went on for nearly a week and based on the reports of their sightings the dogs covered many miles. Finally a neighbor was able to get close enough to catch Sunny for us and we brought her safely home. Then came the next worry. You see, we hadn't had Sunny spayed yet and I had noticed the day before she ran away that she was "in season".
Now before you go scolding me for not having my dog spayed let me tell you the rest of the story. We got Sunny from a friend in the fall, smack dab in the middle of hunting season. Now you don’t go and spay a huntin’ dog in the middle of the season. Our plan was to have her spayed early in the spring when she could be comfortable outside and have it done and healed before the flies got too bad. You see the last female we had spayed didn’t have such a good experience and we wanted to do it better this time around. Okay, I know, too little too late.
So I did the math and sure enough we were looking to have a litter of puppies sometime after Lily’s birthday. Time passed and sunny showed all the signs that she was about to have a litter. Poor girl, she had an udder that dwarfed some of our dairy cows! I got a nice spot in the garage for her all set up where she could stay in peace and quite, sheltered from the wind and sun. We kept her there that last week except when we had her outside with us. That’s what we did on Saturday, May 17th. The kids and I were working outside and Sunny was with us. We took a break to pick up some feed at the elevator and when we got home Sunny was gone again.
It didn’t take long to find her this time. She was in the barn, crowded into what used to be the manure gutter and she was having puppies. She kept having them all day too!
The puppies started out looking like blind gophers but quickly became very cute. Not to long after they got cute, they got to be stinkers. They got into everything. Any toy left out quickly became a chew toy. I planted some flowers, they ate them. And you would not believe how much poo nine puppies can make!
So I decided it was time for the puppies to go. Sunny agreed. She was tired of them trying to nurse and often chased them away. We weaned the puppies and got nine different colored collars for them so we could tell them apart. Big mistake. As soon as we could tell them apart we started figuring out which ones were our favorites.
So now comes our dilemma. All the puppies are gone except for the two we like the best, Della and Jake. We can’t possibly keep two puppies we need to pick just one. Here’s a little about the two so you can help us decide who to keep.
Della- she was our first pick as a favorite. For the first two weeks we had the collars on she was the first to come and greet us. She’s a sweet pup that loves to snuggle. She’s quieter than the rest and more laid back. She’s bit of a mama’s girl and took the weaning a little harder than the rest of the litter. She didn’t gain weight like everybody else but is quickly catching up as she has less competition for the food bowl. She’s growing into a tall lean dog. She seems to be smarter than the others. When I stand in the kennel to lure them in, most of the pups come running. Not Della though, she won’t be tricked into being locked up.
Della, not the best picture though
Jake- He warmed up to us a later than Della. He is now one of the most friendly pups always showing up to greet us. He quickly moves on to other things if you don’t play with him, probably a little ADHD kicking in there. Jake is a rambunctious boy and usually the first to get into trouble. He always gets his share of the food bowl and is well-built because of it. Jake is the quintessential lab. Friendly and loyal but maybe just a little on the clumsy side. He definately has good hunting dog potential.
Okay, it's not Jake but they all look the same anyway!
So now we need your help, which one should we keep? Any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated!
As a response to my dear sister-in-law I'm writing about my typical day. Ashlee is fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home mom and in her last blog entry she wrote about her typical non-exciting but perfectly productive day. Now, I've had the good fortune to experience the stay-at-home-mom lifestyle and believe me, it's no picnic. If I was given the choice today I'm not sure that I would choose to do that again. Just wait a year and a half until both my kids are in school, then I'll be able to fulfill my dream of being a stay-at-home mom 
.
For now I'll maintain my sanity by escaping to my cubicle for 8 hours a day, torturing myself by thinking of all the projects I could be working on at home, if only I had the time. I don't know how people manage the working-mom life. Our daily schedule leaves so little time for extras during the week. On a typical day I barely have enough time to finish the things I need to do- eat, sleep, take care of kids and critters, heaven forbid I have to go to a meeting, swimming lesson, or anything else after work. There's just no time for it.
So as a response to my dear Ashlee, An Ode on a Working Mom...my not so perfect (but typical) day-
5:30- hit the snooze
6:10- realize I had better get my butt moving
6:30- ahhh, my peaceful time outside, checking critters... uhhhhgg, is that goat limping? Another hoof injury, why in the world did somebody decide that it was a good idea to dump all their scrap metal in the woods?
7:00- better get the kids up
7:05- kids, get up!
7:10- Kids, we're leaving in 5 minutes!
7:15- break down and drag the kids out of bed so I can dress them like a limp doll.
7:25- leave for work, only 10 minutes late today!
7:35- drop kids off at daycare, they scream for another hug as I sneak out the door.
8:00- work (yawn) They have the air conditioning on today, I know I should be thankful for that but it's FREEZING in here. I can't help but think the taxpayers' money makes our building into a refrigerator in the summer. What a waste.
2:00- realize that I've really done nothing productive today, take a coffee break
4:30- another wasted day, back home to bust my butt to get things done that I need to do at home.
5:00- pick up the kids, they fight with each other all the way home.
5:15- try to escape whiney kids by going to my room to rest
5:20- they find me, beg for supper, wake up Bill
5:45- supper- scrambled eggs, again. while making supper and waiting for the kids to finish I managed to whip up a batch of strawberry preserves to can. I picked three buckets of strawberries on Sunday and most of them are sitting in the fridge waiting to meet their final destiny as jam, pies, sorbet, and other yummies that we can save for the dark winter months.
6:30- Lily and I pick rhubarb for our next canning endeavor- rhubarb sauce
6:45- Bill complains that the yard is a mess, parts of a raccoon I poisoned had been scattered about by our puppies, and why didn't I take care of it right away? So I did raccoon pick-up duty.
7:00- Lily helps me chop the rhubarb and start it stewing.
7:45- Kids need a bath...
8:00- kids, get your PJ's on and brush your teeth!
8:15- I stink too bad from raccoon duty, I'll tuck you in after I do chores and shower, GET TO BED!!
8:20- first half of chores- feed the critters, put the puppies in the kennel, call the goats up, fill the watering tanks.
8:30- back inside to put rhubarb sauce in jars and process
8:40- Kids, get to bed, I'll tuck you in when I'm done!
9:00- back outside for chores, part two- catch the two goats with hoof injuries and give shots, penicillin for infection and banamine for fever and swelling. They hate me know.
9:20- back in to take the jars off the stove and clean up
9:25- No, I'm not finished yet, GET BACK TO BED!
9:55- The much-needed shower
10:10- I tuck in Lily and Jack
10:15- send Bill off to work
10:20- Lily tucks me in
10:30-
Love ya girl!!!
If you haven't yet noticed, I've been working on updating our website with a new hosting service. Although I enjoy putting the pages together, I really know nothing about website building, domains, hosting...whatever! It's all a big experiment to me. What I do know is that now we don't have those annoying advertisements on our website so that's a plus! You will now have to add the www to the front of our name to get to the site, here it is: http://www.andersonsoakcreekranch.com
The bad part is that in the move to the new hosting I lost all of the pictures that had been in my previous blog entries. I've got most of them loaded to my photobucket account so if you want to see them, check out: http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t250/khoeschen/, I think that will work.
So, our weekend...What is it about summer that says every weekend must be jam-packed? Whatever happened to lounging at the lake and being lazy? Actually we got to do a little of that but it never seems relaxing with the kids around. Oh well. I was blessed to be able to spend the weekend with an old high-school friend and her family. Nicole's little sister Kadie got married to an old swim team contact and we had a grand swim-union at the wedding dance. The kids had a blast too, candy, dancing, glowing necklaces, yup, the whole bit! Jack won over the heart of the flower girl, another family friend, and got his first kiss! He gets really embarrased about it so be sure to tease him when you see him!
Sunday we got to lounge at the lake with Nicole's family, basically my second family, it was so nice to see them all again. Afterward, Jack and Lily settled down with a nice juicy piece of watermelon, and then a bath!
Whew! After a busy weekend, Jack and Lily enjoyed a bedtime snack of juicy watermelon
So, now back to another week, a short one, but a week nonetheless. We're looking forward to the annual Fourth of July visit from my brother, Derek and his wife, Kim. They need to get a break from the perfect San Diego weather every now and then. Jack and Lily always look forward to seeing them. They've been asking for the past two weeks, how many days...? It will, of course, be another typical, busy summer weekend but we'll definately save some time for lounging and eating watermelon!
With every new endeavor there seems to be a learning curve. You can read books, make plans and talk to people who have gone before you. These are all good preparations but for me anyway, the best way to learn is to “just do it.”
Such as been the case with so many of my farm and garden projects. For every new thing I’ve tried, you’ll find on the shelf in my room at least three books and a pile of articles to go along with it. Nobody can say that I don’t so my research, unfortunately doing research and actually having the experience of doing are two completely different things.
It often takes an unusual situation to distinguish between one who has prepared by researching and one who has prepared by experiencing. The heavy rains we’ve been blessed with over the past week have been my unusual situation and I have been tested. Actually, I would say it’s the heavy rainfall on top of all the other new experiences that have really tested me this week. One thing I’ve learned, if it can go wrong, it will. Here is a sampling of some of this week’s experiences and what I’ve learned from them.
Brooding baby chicks- This is definitely not a new experience for me, I’ve raised hundreds of chicks.
Raising kids (the four-legged ones)- this is a new experience for me and I’ve done my research. I have yet to find a book that will tell you that when there’s trouble to get into, they’ll find it and if you think you have a potential hazard around, fix it immediately. Two experiences support this knowledge, first was my mom of triplets, finally after three days in the barn with her newborns she ventured out to the woods with the other goats. Two of the babies followed, only one came back. Goats can’t count. She was happily nursing her two when I came to check on them and realized one was missing. I stole one of the two babies to use on my search. His hollering finally convinced little brother to holler back. He was stuck in the cattails by the lake. Luckily I was able to get him out and dry him off before any damage was done, he’s doing fine now. My other trouble maker wasn’t so lucky. Our old dairy barn still has the gutters and barn cleaner which empty to a small concrete pit in the back. This pit has the tendency to fill up with water, definitely a hazard so I covered it up. The little rascals were always playing around it and eventually my cover slid off just enough for a little doe to fall in. No fun. I have since filled the pit in but I had to learn the hard way. Lesson learned- baby goats can’t swim, eliminate all drowning hazards!
Putting up goat fence- I firmly believe that all the research in the world will not teach you how to do this effectively. There are so many different opinions as to what works, some will say nothing but livestock panels all around, others insist that woven wire is the only way, still others say that woven wire alone is not effective, you need something that shocks. Here’s what I’ve discovered, no one fence is perfect for every situation. You need to pick the option that will work for your pasture but is also cost effective. Here’s what we did. We have an overgrown grove behind the house, about 1.5 acres requiring about 1000 feet of fence- it goes along the lake so no fence is needed there. The sturdiest fence would be cattle panels at a cost of $1200- not including posts. These would work but there is a risk of goats sticking their heads through and getting stuck, plus, a little pricey! How about woven wire? The wire itself costs about $350 but again you have the head-in-the-fence problem so a couple hot wires would be needed to prevent the goats from getting too friendly with the fence. So, figure another $200 for wire and insulators (not including posts). Who would have though the pasture fence would cost so much!
We decided to go with just the electric wires, 4 of them (you can't see the bottom one, it's low to keep the young ones in. All the goat people are now freaking out “Four isn’t enough!” Maybe not if this was a high pressure pasture but the way I see it, these girls have no reason to get out of the fence. There’s plenty to eat, there are no bucks around and generally everything they could possibly need is in that fence. I can see maybe a kid getting out but they don’t go too far. I’ll keep you posted on how the goat fence works out. It could be another case of live and learn but for now the only lesson learned- books and magazines can only give general guidelines, unique situations require unique solutions.
Putting up a garden fence- The purpose of a garden fence is exactly opposite of that of a goat fence. Here we need to keep the critters out, not in. We deal with all sorts of critters sneaking snacks from the garden, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, goats, dogs, cattle, kids (2 legged), birds. Of course with some of these sneaking snacks isn’t the problem. For example, the cows occasionally get out, it just happens. Have you ever seen what 60 1500-pound beef cows can do to a garden? Fortunately I haven’t but it’s been close a time or two. We’ve been wanting to fence off the garden for some time now and it’s finally happening. Of course I did my homework first. I researched all types of fencing, even requested samples. I compared their effectiveness and price and finally settled on welded wire- 14 gauge, 36” tall, 2”x 4” spaces between the wires. Now, I have a reputation for putting up absurdly crooked fences so I tried to get Bill to help out. Unfortunately it’s so rare that we’re both home at the same time, coordinating our fencing was not easy- so I set the posts…hehehehe. IT’S JUST A GARDEN FENCE, NOBODY WILL SEE IT BUT US! So gimme a break! He did help me stretch the wire and attach it but that didn’t turn out so pretty either.
Perhaps welded wire wasn’t the best choice. Notice how it tends to flop around along the top edge- we just couldn't pull the stuff tight! I can’t think of how we could have made it better, except for, well, getting the posts in straight and making the fence on level ground, and…oh, just gimme a break already! Regardless of how it looks, I think it will work. Lesson learned- sometimes you just have to say “good enough!”
Okay, so the list could go on, my critters teach me something new everyday. They never cease to amaze me. The other day as the sun was setting I watched the goats play and at one time there were 4 baby goats, less than 2 weeks old climbing in the trees. How do they do that? Maybe someday they’ll teach me and it will be yet another lesson learned.
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