New home for piggies

Today Kandee came over to help work on the farm. The pigs are in need of more grass but I just hate to move them. We unrolled the green electric netting that we used for the sheep last year, just to see where it would take us. After we had that up I decided to open up the back and give them as much grass as possible. They got a bit curious (ran out of the slop I dumped to keep them busy) and came over to check on what we were doing. Now the pigs have all the way from the street to almost halfway back to the creek. I was just sorry I couldn't get the trees in it.

Today we finished pasture 5 by the road. It is wet and swampy when it rains, but it gets so overgrown and we can't get a tractor in there to cut it. So we will let the cows cut it for us.

Eric asked our friends Jim and Chris to come over and help. We got the wires done in a jiffy with all the help.

It took a bit longer to convince the cows to go in there.

After lunch we worked on trimming hooves. We had 4 that were limping. All 4 of them had hoof rot. It is a nasty, smelly and gross bacterial infection of the soft part of the hoof. I did as much as I could for the first time, but we will need to do them again soon.

This is a good reason not to take free animals, there is almost always something wrong with them. Those 5 free ewes we got a few weeks ago brought the rot with them. We should have quarantined them for a few weeks, but we really weren't ready for them. We were supposed to have a few more weeks before they came, but the dogs in her neighborhood were getting in and attacking the sheep and she was worried they would be hurt or killed, so we rushed and didn't quarantine them. Now I wish we had taken the time.

We also trimmed alot of the other sheep and goats. We got to all the babies and all of the Dorper ewes. We did 17 in all. It is not difficult, but necessary. It is amazing how fast the baby's hooves grow.

Yesterday the two handfed lambs were fully weened. We also noticed they started looking and acting strange. The girl ended up getting shocked on the fence and then walking in circles. After Eric got home he did some research and found the 'circling disease', listeriosis. The only treatment is high doses of antibiotics.

I just got finished making some herbal glycerites and goldenseal was one of them. Goldenseal happns to be antibiotic, so I started dosing them with 1 tsp. every hour. They started getting better after about 2 doses. they were up and walking around and were looking good. Unfortunately I fell asleep around 3am and wasn't able to continue. So in the morning we realized they had died. Madison was very unhappy since she had fed them, they were her babies.

Lawn-mowers

This morning we finished the paddock fence. We moved the sheep and goats and they were THRILLED! They loved the grass. I loved having it mowed. It is just win-win all around.

On Monday the 8th our last goat was born. We noticed that there seemed to be something wrong, so Madison went to check. She ran back and said I needed to come, the baby was stuck. So there I was, 9 am brithing a goat. The baby had the legs twisted and over the head stuck in mom's pevlis. I was able to release them and help pull him out. It must have been traumatic for the mom because she wouldn't even get close to him. I felt another baby in there and we kept watching for it. We watched all day and nothing.

So he was named Moonpie, because Madison said he looked like marshmalow and chocolate. He was in the house intil he was down to 3 feedings a day (about a week) and he just loves Madison. He especially loves to nibble her ear.

The next day we found his brother in the ditch. So she did have another, but we don't know when that happened or what went wrong. We tried over and over to get her to take him, but she wouldn't, so we will be hand feeding another for 8 weeks.

I just love my lawn-mowers

Weaning

We have started to wean the lambs and the goat. It has been a really LONG 5 1/2 weeks. We are all looking forward to not having to get up and mix the milk and go out into the cold, cold morning.

Then only problem with hand feeding is they jump out of the fence. It is really cute to have them following us around when we are out. They just don't understand they must stay in.