Dairy goats

Eric has been talking about getting dairy goats for some time. He finally found some...where else, but...in the Trader.

For those not familiar with the Tennessee Trader it is a publication that is free to advertise in and only costs $1 to buy. In the Trader we have found:
1. our land
2. our cows
3. our chickens
4. Sheba

and now...
5. our dairy goats

We now have 1 very pregnant Nubian named Moon and another pregnant LaMancha that looks alot like the Alpine we lost. Madison named her Kelly.

Along with the ladies we were 'given' a billy named Melvin. Now if you know anything about goats you will know that billys are notorious for the way they smell...nasty. Melvin fits the bill, he stinks. The reason they smell so foul is due to goat cologne. No, it is not something that we do to them, the billys will actually pee on their face to attract a female. I don't know about the other goats, but I do not find it enticing at all.

This is Snowflake and Cream. We are hoping that Melvin will work his stinky magic with them also and give us a few more brushmowers for next spring.

Rain...again

Today we had plans to do alot of work. But once again the weather got in the way.

It started to rain about half way through the day, so we decided to break early. Little did we know that we would get 4" in 24 hours.

Later that day, we had a lake in our front yard. Now we are wondering what it looks like at the farm.

Luckily our creek has deep sides and it never even came over its banks. But it did take quite awhile for the lake in the yard to soak in...thank goodness I had just mowed the lawn.

Farm Truck

Today we finally got our farm truck. For months now the people at the local Co-op like to joke around about my "farm van" when I go to pick up feed for the animals. So now I can do my farm shopping in the appropriate vehicle.

When searching for this truck our requirements were simple.
1. it runs
2. it won't break...much
3. it is dented and ugly (so I won't have to feel bad when it gets dented and scratched)

So far I don't know about #'s 1 and 2, but we definitely got #3.

Wiring

We started wiring the house on the 7th. It doesn't sound like it would be a long time consuming job...but it is.

All the boxes and then the wires and then to the panel box...

It takes ALOT of wire.

The shower wall is done now.

Wednesday was slaughter day for 3 of our smaller sheep.

And three's a charm...

Eric found another Anatolian Shepherd. This time it is a female. She is 14 weeks old and a sweetheart. Her name is Sheba.

Sheba's father came from Turkey (Anatolian Shepherd) and her mother is a Great Pyrenese.

We weren't sure how she would do with the boys the first night, so we kept her in the kennel until we were sure they wouldn't hurt her. They all played very well together.

Cows on the loose

I was on my way over to the farm today when I get a call from Eric:

"Carolyn called and the cows are on the street".

I hate when I get these calls, I always get panicked first. So as I drive over in the fog expecting to see the cows in the driveway like the the last few times I heard that. I found nothing...no cows at all.

Now I am worried, where would they have gone...up the mountain...out the road?

I drive back to the house and look around...and get grain. But there is no grain, they already had been here and ate it all. Now it will be even harder to get them home (if I find them), because they aren't hungry.

We finally find them behind the neighbors house at the end of the road. We gather them all up and try to get them to walk down the road. They really didn't want to co-operate. Some tried to go up the mountain, some tried to go through the neighbor's yard. We finally got them to our property and tried to turn them down the drive, they had other plans.

A few tried to continue down the road, the small ones wanted to go back to the pasture, but through the swamp. Finally I got the biggest 3 to go down the drive and we got them in and then went back to help Mom with the rest.

Finally after 3 hours we had them all in and the fences were fixed. Needless to say we got a new fence charger.