2011 = One big drama sandwich

Wow, what a year! Luckily everything seems to be working out but it has been quite a ride. My sister and her two children moved out in October...which is good because things were becoming quite tense on the home-front. She seems to be becoming fairly self-reliant, though I am often left wondering about her decision-making skills.

We had our first chicks hatched this year. For the most part, we let the hens raise their chicks themselves, and have 5 survivors - of which at least 3 are roosters. The youngest still remains to be seen.

Daisy and her doeling Rosie have moved on to one of my husband's co-workers and seem to be doing well. Sweet Pea and Sierra are fat and sassy.

Speaking of Sierra...she has had a crazy couple of days. When we got home Tuesday evening, we noticed that our gate was open and Sierra was gone. We searched and searched that night and the next day. Called and left messages with local businesses, had our friends and neighbors looking for her, reports in with the animal control offices, etc. No sign. I was so sure that she'd been picked up and possibly was in someone's freezer. Then this afternoon, a friend texted me that she found out who had her and I would be able to pick her up after the lady was off of work. I was worried that it wouldn't be her but lo and behold it was! What a relief!! The lady's son was already attached (yes, Sierra is a special kind of goat) so I promised them two babies in May.

I received my discharge papers from the Air Force about a month ago now. Getting ready for the transition has been worrisome, especially due to some circumstances developing with my husband's current job. Although I desperately want to stay home, I've had to find a job. I was blessed that one basically fell in my lap, and I start next Monday. Buying a wardrobe has been an eye-opening experience - clothes nice enough to go to work in are expensive! Not that I didn't know that but laying down the cash is stressful, geez.

I've become infinitely better at sewing, though that's not saying much lol. I have saved one whole pair of jeans, and sewn two badges onto the kids' AWANA vests. I'm still a little afraid of the sewing machine so I've done this by hand. For those that don't know, thimbles are an invaluable accessory for hand-sewing!

Finally, I've signed up to take some college classes. Should be fun to take 2-3 classes and work full-time. I'm wondering how I'm possibly going to have the time to milk my girls after they kid. Time to start saving for a milking machine and stanchion.

Everyone is in good health and, though it's been bumpy, everything has been working out. I thank the Lord every day.

New Goat!!

We picked up Sweet Pea this weekend yay! She's a registered first freshener that kidded with triplets back in March. She comes from a long line of milkers - her dam is a 9th generation milker (9*D) and one of the terms of purchase with her breeder is that we milk test her next year. We went to pick her up on Sunday, a 5 hour drive one way, and have been milking her twice a day - it's an amazing feeling knowing that our animal is putting the milk in the fridge! She's producing about a quart of milk a day right now, more in the evenings. For those afraid to try goat's milk, I can tell you that it tastes like normal cow's milk but is creamier due to the cream not separating. It smells pretty delicious too - like vanilla soft-serve ice cream according to my sister. I need to do some research in order to figure out what the normal production for a Nigerian Dwarf FF. I am ecstatic to finally have a real dairy goat! My husband has not tried the milk yet but I knew he'd be a hard sell. My daughter calls it 'creamy milk'.

Success with Sweet Pea makes me want to try Daisy again, especially knowing that our goats are here to be dairy animals. An animal that doesn't pull it's weight will be sold. I'll try a few more times before I make a final decision. For now the plan will probably be to keep the doeling and sell Daisy if she's unwilling to settle down. She's quite the acrobat.

Milking

In short, it was quite the rodeo. Last night, Daisy wouldn't let down her milk so I trimmed her hooves and put her up. The kids spent the night in a wire dog crate in the goat house so they couldn't nurse. At 7:30 am, I went to get Daisy, cleaned her udder, showed her the chow and got to work but she definitely wasn't making it easy, yeesh. I also realized she has tiny orifices so even though I had good rhythm and relatively good technique, it took absolutely forever. I did get enough milk in the jar to realize her milk doesn't taste very good - it tastes like grass. She has been showing signs of copper deficiency so I finally dosed her today. For those that are nervous about dosing (like me!), peanut butter is the way to go. Easy-peasy, with no angry goat involved - hopefully that will take care of the off-taste. Daisy's got a week to settle into her life as a dairy animal. If not, I may have to figure something else out.

Fallen behind again

But this time I have a really good excuse. I put in for leave the last week of April (kid's spring break), and was planning to get my new fruit trees mulched and veggies in the garden. To make a long story short, my plans went out the window that Monday and my younger sister and her two kids are staying here for a while. Most of my seedlings have died from neglect (e-gads, I had to buy veggie plants from a store again!), but all my trees are in the ground, including a couple new citrus trees and an avocado. And, Daisy kidded!

Crazy girl decided to have her kids while I was at home scarfing a sandwich before heading out to pick the human kiddos from school. I decided, what the heck, I'll check on Daisy while I'm here. She was in the goat house and laid down to push as I peeked in the door. I ran inside to change into farm clothes, and got back as the first kid was coming out. It was a large buckling, perfect birth but I could tell there was another kid in there. When she laid down to push the second time, it was easy to see this kid was completely breech, butt first. The cord broke before she was completely out and the bag was really tough to break - pretty scary. As all this was happening I was trying to call somebody, anybody to pick up my kids, but no such luck. When I was sure she was done, I ran to the school, dropped the kids off at the babysitter and came back home to clean up before going back to work - it was a hectic afternoon. So, we have one buck, one doe, both very healthy and Daisy is being a great mom. These pictures were taken the day they were born.

Buck:

Doe:

I plan to milk Daisy out for the first time this evening, separate the kids, and start milking in earnest tomorrow morning.

Today's haul

Six, count 'em, six rainbow trout hauled in by me and my boy while his Daddy kept bait on the line. It's only the second time Devon has ever been fishing and he did great, catching three of them himself.

Name-change coming...

As soon as I get word back from ADGA (American Dairy Goat Association) and AGS (American Goat Society), I will be changing the name of this blog. I have a few herdnames that I've picked out, so we'll see which one gets the thumbs-up.

I read through a couple of my old posts and remember writing that I didn't particularly want or need registered goats. I guess I'll explain why I ended up going with registered instead of grade or mixed-breed. The basic reason was milk production. The two breeds I was considering were LaMacha and Nigerian Dwarf. Reality is we have under an acre and a half, so the smaller option was the better one. The problem...lots of folks breed Nigerians just for pets. If you can't be sure how well a doe's dam milked, then you cannot begin to guess how well she will milk. Lots of grade and mixed-breed standard goats milk well, but I didn't want to take a chance with a grade Nigerian. I would really love to have a mini-Mancha one day though...

Damping Off Prevention

Damping-off: 2 Me: 16

The casualties: 1 giant grey-stripe sunflower seedling, 1 borage seedling.

But the battle's not over yet. I had to do some research tonight on 'natural' prevention and have three methods I'm going to try.

1. Lightly sprinkle cinnamon on soil, only needs to be done once. Done.
2. Water with chamomile tea at 2x normal drinking strenth. Brewing now.
3. One cup hydrogen peroxide to one gallon of water. Tomorrow's project.

If I have to, I may give in and buy something made to prevent damping off. I would rather not spray my little seedlings with chemicals but if it means no seedlings at all...

The Bread Trials

Bread is another area that continues to show me up. I have never baked one of those mouth-wateringly fluffy loaves that so many others seem to have no problems producing. I carefully weigh and take temperatures each time...but still, no success. It's disheartening to put all day into making something that no one wants to eat in the end, so I gave up for a while. Now that we have pounds and pounds of wheat, I decided to give it another shot...and had another flop. This particular loaf was more like a wheat brick. At least the hens enjoy eating my mistakes.

Sprouts

The seedlings are coming up nicely now and seem to be doing ok - though the damping-off fungus is just itching to raise it's ugly head. I have to leave the cover off the tray, and water next to the seedlings or the ugly white hairs start creeping over them. So far, I believe I may have lost one borage seedling. It has yet to poke through the soil, and white hairs are criss-crossing over the soil where we planted it. The other borage seedlings have all sprouted, along with a few sunflowers, one of the nasturtiums, and a few more tomatoes. They are currently in a very sunny window, but we're going to rig up a real light for them this weekend. Hopefully my other seeds will get here soon, I'm really looking forward to starting the strawberries!

Seed-starting

I am really terrible at it! For three years now I've started seeds and to date I've lost nearly all of my seedlings to damping-off. I planted seeds a few days back. The borage seeds are just starting to sprout and already I can see the thin white hairs that indicate damping-off. I have the seedling tray sitting in on the sill of an open window. I put a few drops of garlic water on the hairs themselves to try to curb the growth until the soil dries out enough to kill the fungus. At least I have plenty of seeds year - guess I'll just continue to practice until I finally get it right.

Sign of Spring

Our apple tree is going gangbusters with the blossoms this year! I probably will not let it produce at the rate it wants to (average 15-20 blooms per branch tip!), but wish I could! It's nice to see that the tree seems to approve of the care it is receiving. What is telling is that I haven't seen a single honey bee around the flowers...After our new trees get settled in and start blooming we will be starting up a little hive of our own.

Gearing up for veggies!

My son was sick today so while he napped, I was able to get some things done outside during daylight hours. I got the vegetable/flower bed in the front filled with compost. I started prep on the other bed (weed removal). I was able to plant the goji berry bushes and the last loquat tree. I even decided to get a little crazy and start some seeds. Cherokee purple tomatoes, borage, nasturtiums, asparagus, and giant sunflowers are now beginning the germination process in a flat inside, while outside, I planted a bush-type cowpea and borage seed next to each new tree. The larger trees will become trellises for the more normal, vining type. It will be interesting to see how they do.

Long day

After work and a DMV visit, I got 9 fruit trees in the ground. I was very impressed with the root systems on these bare-root trees. Still have to plant two blueberry bushes, two passion flower vines, and a loquat tree (all potted) but that can wait for another day - I am beat!

Pictures of Goaties

Finally, a few pictures. This is chunky-monkey Daisy back in January. She's is a bit larger now. In the past she has only had singles and twins, and I believe the same will be true this time around - I'm fine with that as long as there's a doeling in there! She is not as steep in the rump as this picture would lead you to believe.

And little Sierra with one of our pecan trees. This little girl has enough energy for 3 or 4 goats. She momentarily paused, so I was able to get a picture before she started zooming around again. She is the spitting-image of her daddy who is out of the top-milk-producing doe at one of the more well-known ND farms in the area. Daisy was bred to Sierra's sire's littermate brother. I have high hopes for my girls and what they will produce for our family!

And finally, a picture of Sierra being a pest. Daisy just stood there - poor thing!

Another Great Blog

Pelenaka's Blog

This lady is hard-working and very resourceful. She seems to believe in the saying 'Bloom where you're planted.' She has a great writing style and is quite witty. I find myself checking in quite often, hoping she has posted while I was out!

Headway

We have progressed towards our goals more in the last three or four months than we have in the entire previous year. It feels great to finally be taking steps in the right direction.

Goats: Our two girls are doing great. Our older doe, Daisy, is showing her pregnancy now in both size and attitude. She's going to be a challenge to milk, I'm afraid. We've been working on touching her belly and udder while she's eating her grain at night and she gets quite acrobatic. I hope to have a milking stand built soon so we can start practicing on it. We have less than two months to go before her scheduled kidding time.

Little Sierra is growing like a weed and has become something of a pest. It can be difficult to do chores when she's nibbling (or biting!) your pants leg or using your back as a spring board. She's lucky she's cute :)

We have another doe to pick up in June after she's weaned her kids. It's going to be quite the drive to pick her up but she's worth it - her dam is an 8th generation star milker (8*D) which is quite a feat for Nigerian Dwarves. I am ecstatic to have her.

As soon as the weather breaks, I'll be fixing up our larger red barn in order to move them out there - as it is now, we have the goats in our backyard - not the best set up. My hubby has been very understanding but I can see that he doesn't appreciate their mischievous ways (when it comes to the various things they have access to in the backyard). The goal is to have them moved before Daisy kids.

Chickens: The girls we have left are doing very well. I hate to brag but our girls are obviously well-fed and healthy-looking, with bright eyes and silky feathers. Our neighbors were so enamoured with our girls that they bought a little laying flock of their own - with two roosters. The roosters have 'access' to our hens when they free-range so here's hoping we'll have some chicks later this year. As for plans - I am planning out a nesting box to attach to the outside of the coop. The girls don't like the current set-up, and they show it by not laying in the nestboxes. That will be another project for when the rains (finally!) go away.

Garden/Produce: I have gone slightly crazy with the seed and plant ordering lately. I also have tons (and tons) of plans and projects for this year's growing season. I hope to be semi-successful but I'm afraid this year is mostly going to be the beginning of a very large learning curve. It's taken me quite a while to get to this point - I generally procrastinate until there's no more time to do anything due to a huge fear of failure. This year, I just keep repeating - You can't succeed if you never try.

Other: I ordered some large, air-tight containers for food storage and ordered organic red wheat berries to fill them. I also bit the bullet and purchased a manual grain mill. I see a lot of baking and sore shoulders in my future.

And, finally, I'm planning a grey-water system, at least for the washing machine. It is such a waste to pump all of that water to the septic when we don't get rain all summer long. I haven't divulged this last plan to the hubby yet. He's not going to like it, but I'm sure he'll see the benefits after a while.

Until next time!

Happenings

A week ago Saturday, I picked up our new Nigerian doeling. She is so precious! And so tiny! I got her from a nice farm in Vacaville that tests their goats for CAE and CL. Sierra (doeling) has the potential to get a 5th generation milking star. Here's hoping! She's given me a bad case of kid-fever. My will-power is being severely tested right now. I just have to hold out until Daisy kids in May. We'll see if I make it that long.

After my last post, I got a small garden area set up. We still haven't bought bricks, so the raised bed consists of the few bricks I had lying around and some old fence posts. I'm using a modified sheet-mulching technique to make it garden-worthy. Still not sure at this point if it'll be ready for planting time, which should begin next month. I'll have to re-evaluate when the time comes. We're still looking for a great deal on bricks. When/if we find one, I'll replace the fence posts with bricks and raise the bed quite a bit too.

The neighbor's dog attacked two more of my hens, both Black Australorps. Neighbor caught the dog in the act, thank goodness. I was very worried about Betty (yes, my hens have names) for a day but then she perked back up. They have built a much sturdier and larger pen for their dogs, and so far there haven't been any more break-outs. I don't blame them for the attacks, after all I choose to free-range my hens. I cannot explain the gratitude I have towards them for taking it as seriously as they do and trying to ensure it doesn't happen again. They've even offered to replace the hens that we've lost. Great neighbors.

Soon, I will be changing the name of my blog. I'm waiting until I have my 'farm name' registered with AGS and ADGA. More changes to come.

Wow, it's been a while

For our family, 2010 was a year with a lot of ups and downs. Not long after my last post, I got orders and also realized that my surgery hadn't gone as well as we'd hoped. What I mean by that is the surgery actually aggravated my condition so that it is much worse now. Our original plan was for me to separate in November to go into the Reserves or National Guard but in order to do that, you have to be 'deployable' - physically able to do some rather demanding things. That suddenly, two of my three employment options were gone. Within days of realizing this, I got orders overseas. To say it was a stressful time would be an understatement. My husband and I decided I would re-enlist and go to my new assignment; he and the kids would stay here. That would keep me employed, make my assignment shorter by one year, he would be able to keep his (very good) job, we would keep the house, and the kids wouldn't have to be uprooted. To make a decision like that broke my heart. I was supposed to leave in Oct and the last week of September I actually had a panic attack. If you've never had one, it feels like you're dying. I thought I was having a stroke because my hands wouldn't function and I couldn't feel my face or speak intelligibly. This happened while I was driving our daughter to an appointment - it was terrifying.

Shortly after that my doctor decided to start paperwork to medically discharge me due to my condition, which cancelled my orders. It's a little scary to think of going down to one income, but hubby and I agree that we're going to use this opportunity. If we can manage, it's time for me to stay home and focus on our family and home.

While all of this was going on, we didn't get much done in the way of homesteading. No garden to speak of, though we did manage to keep the apple and orange trees alive and finally get my horse out here. We went down to 10 hens, which recently became six - neighbor's loose dog. And, for Christmas, my husband got me a Nigerian Dwarf goat that is due to kid in May. We were having a hard time finding another goat that had been tested for CL and CAE, so we have a doeling reserved from a breeder in Vacaville. She has several does due the first week of February, so we should have her by March. Having our goat around is a lot of fun - I enjoy interacting with her and watching her antics. Her name is Daisy; should have a picture up soon.

So, my recently modified (and re-instated!) to-do list:

Buy/barter for bricks for the raised bed garden.
Buy/barter for a large chainlink dog kennel to use for pasture rotation for our goats.
More fruit trees and bushes.
Buy/barter for a manual grain grinder for making whole grain breads.
Get back into canning!
Put in a hand-pump for our well.
'Borrow' a friend's rooster come springtime for chicks.
Finish fencing.
Purchase necessary goat supplies (for kidding, milking).
Learn as much as possible about permaculture.

That's not the entire list but it's way past my bedtime. You should never start canning after 9 pm.