April

Life seems to be going by so fast now that we are in the house.  Sometimes I forget to take pictures, but this day Madison needed a rest and thought the feed trough looked comfy.

Look at how big Amelia has gotten

The Sheep are just trying to get some shade, however Tank thinks it is all his

 

 This is one of my favorite places, just sitting in the cool shade by the creek

We made a pen and treatment area to treat the sheep and trim hooves.  We ended up using it a lot since the 'free' sheep were infected with hoof rot.






Eric likes to sit in the pasture and 'watch' the animals.  This day he took a chair and left it there.  He didn't realize that the steers would see it as a play toy.  It took me hours to get that chair off his head.  And lets just say by the time it was off it was no longer a chair.

The cutest thing...

Isn't this the cutest thing you ever saw?

This is a 7 week old Dexter calf. He is just so tiny. We have decided, after much research, that we are going to raise Dexter cows and steers. They are a bit smaller than other breeds and they are also fair milkers.

This farm has 2 Dexter females for sale so we are buying one and our friends Mary and Kevin are getting the other. Madison can't wait until we have one of these on our farm for her to love.

The Cows...

Here they are....alot bigger than they were last april.

These are our heifers, Red (in the back) and Bessie (in the front). They are girlfriends, they stick together. Bessie is a bit of a bully, especially to the smaller boys.

That is 'Steak' giving this one a rub on the butt. Steak is REALLY friendly.

Madison named this one 'munch-n-crunch'

They tend to hang out together. If ones moves too far away the rest will eventually follow.

Today Madison and I finished fixing the creek pastures. It was really hot, but we finally got it all done.

April Fools!!!

No joking here, just alot of work. The grass is growing and the animals need to be moved. Today we fixed the wire on the creek fence. It has not been fixed since the first flood in December. After that flood I only fixed the pasture that the sheep were actually in. Then after the second flood in January I decided to move the whole fenceline back over the rise, so we wouldn't take the chance for the rushing waters to take out anymore fenceline. We kept the fenceline on the creek for a separate pasture to be used in the spring and summer months. So now is time to fix it up and get the cows in there to eat the grass. We focused mainly on the area under all of the trees in pasture 4. We are fencing this for the cows mostly, they really need the grass.

We also finished pasture 2 for the sheep. Since Kandee and Jim were there we were able to carry that huge/heavy roll of wire. However trying to go over the mucky ditch with the heavy wire was impossible. Jim stopped when he felt himself getting stuck and that made me REALLY get stuck. I had to actually crawl out on my hands and knees. We did it differently on the way back.

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.

Moving the fence

We spent the last two days fencing the unused portion of the orchard and down the driveway. I hated the thought of moving such a nice straight fenceline.

We got the whole thing done in just 2 days. Now on to the paddock!

We had a whole week of no rain. Hooray!
It was still cold Monday to Thursday, but Friday and Saturday were beautiful.

Last week, Blacksheep, out last pregnant ewe had her baby. It died shortly after birth, probably due to being breech. It was also very cold that night. So all lambs are born and we are only waiting on one goat.

The babies that we are hand feeding have now graduated to the pasture from the barn. That makes the chores much easier.

On Sunday we got 5 new ewes. A lady that lives in the next town needed to find a new home for them so Eric graciously volunteered. Ao I took some time on Friday to make a nice 'chute' over the ditch to the pasture. Eric took the truck to pick up Brian's trailer and brought them over. We got them out and easily into the pasture. then Sampson proceeded to chase them. Eventuallly everyone settled down.

So now we have 12 adult ewes and 3 baby ewes. We also have 6 ram lambs, one of which will be traded for a full Katahdin ram.

Update

Over the past 2 weeks we have had 7 more lambs. Two of those ended up being orphans. Their mother decided not to feed them so we brought them in the house. After a week those lambs and the goats graduated to a small stall in the shelter. So no more livestock in my house.

We drag hot water, hay, feed and milk down to the shelter every day. We still have two ewes in the 'maternity ward' waiting to have their babies. Finally we got the 4wheeler working so we are able to drive all stuff down in the wagon. That was a marvelous thing because those 5 gallon gas cans that we used for the hot water are really heavy.

We are still hand feeding the 2 lambs and Eclipse. Unfortunately poor Nestor died. He was just fine one day, and then the morning feeding the next day he didn't want to eat much and he seemed tired. At the noon feeding he wouldn't eat anything and his stomach was really distended. He didn't want to get up and walk either. We called a vet and left a voicemail, and Eric called all of his 'goat info' people. We found out that sometimes bottle babies will guzzle the milk if the nipple hole is too big and they swallow alot of air. They cannot get rid of that air and it just gets worse and makes them lethargic. That gas eventually kills them. The only thing that can be done is to open a hole into their stomach to release the gas. By the time we got this info little Nestor had already died.

He was the sweetest little goat and we will all miss him.

We go through 1 bag of dog food, one bag of sheep feed, one bag of corn for the pigs 9 bales of hay for the sheep and 1 large round hay bale (cows) each week. I am looking forward to when I have money in the farm account to pay for this.

Nestor and Eclipse are loving life. They get all the special treatment being inside and then they get to go out and play with Madison.

Kelly had her baby during the storm, as did some of the sheep. This is Mist. She is really cute, but she doesn't like us to try to touch her.

We had snow today. Isn't it just beautiful!

So we have baby goats living in the house. Just imagine how that smells at the end of the day. Yep it is bad. But they are really cute to watch.

Madison works very hard feeding all of her babies.

Today Eric called me at church and told me that the creek was almost ready to spill o ut into the pasture. So I quickly came home so we could make changes before everything flooded.

It was touch and go for a bit. It was really high.

We watched waiting to see if it would come over the edge of this cut behind the house.

We cut off the creekline and put up temporaty fencing behind the water line.

Eventually we decided to spend the night at Mom and Dad's just incase the water came too high.

Baby goats!

This morning as we looked out at the pasture we saw a little brown thing. We couldn't figure out what it was. We got halfway to the pasture and realized that it was baby goats.

Moon, our Nubian had 2 little babies.

Melvin, the father is a LaMancha, and they have no ears. Nubians have long floppy ears. The female has the body shape of her father and the coloring of her mother. The boy has the body shape of his mother and the coloring of his father.

Since mom's name is Moon we named the girl Eclipse. The boy with the long floppy ears reminded us of the Christmas movie with the donkey with the long ears, so we named him Nestor.

Unfortunately there was something wrong with Moon and she died this afternoon. So now we have 2 goats in the house

Sad day

Unfortunately on Saturday little baby Tips died. She just wasn't eating enough to thrive. We ended up forcing her to eat most times and not getting nearly enough of that food. Madison was really upset, she had a hard time watching, knowing that she wouldn't make it. Once it was over everyone was ok with it. It is just a part of life, sometimes things don't work out.

The shelter got an overhaul. Instead of the individual stalls, we now have an area for the moms and babies and an area for those waiting to deliver.

Our ram likes to hang with the dog.

The pregnant mommas really don't like being confined.

The babies are having a blast.

My animal free home...not.

He was born on New Year's Day. It is now Sunday, the 3rd and we moved in the house exactly15 days ago. His brother died of the cold last night, and now I have a lamb in my house.

He is a really cute little thing.

His name is Spaz, because he jumps around like a crazy little thing.

We bring him in around 8pm and he sleeps in the house over night, and then he goes back out around 8am.

Tanner is loving having the lamb in the house. He wants him to live here forever. Luckily it will warm up tomorrow and the lamb won't need to be inside overnight.

Madison loves to watch the animals. She found a new place to perch to do that.

This is Tips. She is the next "house lamb". She was born sometime in the early morning today. We found her brother frozen by the fence, so they must have been born very early.

She wasn't nursing and her mother wouldn't stand still for her. She started getting very weak, so we brought her in to feed her.

It had been so long since she had eaten that she didn't even have enough energy to do that, so we had to force feed her.

She decided she liked being a "house lamb".