HOLY COW!

Evidently its true what they say. "Chickens are a gateway livestock. "  

You're sitting there one morning, drinking your coffee, enjoying some nice farm eggs  and toast for breakfast, and you get to thinking, "it sure would be nice to have a glass of fresh milk  and some butter for this toast. "

And next thing you know, you have brought home a cow. 

So here she is, little Dixie MOOn, mostly jersey, with a little holstein thrown in, possibly some Gurnsey.  She is a week old right now, and very very cute.   Sorry for the bad photos.
Long story, but we first picked her up earlier this week, and she came down with a respiratory infection and some scours .  (diarrhea for the non farmers out there) so we took her back to the farm, and they are getting her all fixed up, and we are picking her back up next weekend after I am out of the hospital from my knee surgery.

We will be bottle feeding her raw milk, so her diet stay as close as possible to what nature intended. Probably for at least two months.  Then, slowly adding hay and grains as she is weaned.

Now thats a bottle!

Goat Pen Improvements

C

 Why did it take so long to do this?  Seems like some tasks, even relatively simple ones, just get put off. I dont know why.
Anyway, after trimming the goat boy's hooves today (another task that was overdue) I decided that we really needed to do something to cover up the bare (muddy) dirt in their pen.  Mud isnt good for any critter, except maybe the pigs.  The goat boys had too much mud caked inside their hoof walls, which can cause hoof rot.  So after cleaning and trimming their hooves, we hauled up some wood chips and spread them out in the pen. Their shed is layered with deep straw and wood shavings, so its fine, but the outside pen needed some upgrading.

 While we were doing this, we decided to pile up a few big rocks for them to play on.  Goats instinctively like to climb, and it will also help keep their hooves worn down.
It was immediate goat games on the new rocks.  Whoever could command the high position was King of the Hill.

 First it was Waldo.

Then Henry. 

Looks like it might be an ongoing game. Of course, I missed Henry doing running leaps and mid air twists onto the new rocks...but that was pretty cute.

Wild Goats

 So here are the two impressive looking bucks that escaped from a farm in a neighboring town and have been roaming free for several months.  All attempts to catch them have proven futile, even using tranquilizer darts. Evidently, goats can withstand a dose that would kill a cow!

 These beautiful, but wary guys would not let me get closer than about 25 feet. They were wandering along the road just down the hill from us and a neighbor spotted them, and drove up to ask if we were missing any..( Evidently, because we have goats, folks immediately think any loose goats must be ours). I quickly grabbed a bucket of sweet feed, which always brings my boys running, to see if I could possibly lure them closer, while waiting for the owner to arrive. They were curious, but too wary.  If they had ever been tame or handled much, their months of freedom in the forest had erased any tameness they had.
I am not sure of their breed... maybe a mix of alpine and nigerian dwarf.  Judging by their horns, these were older, mature goats...Bucks smell REALLY strongly.... and these guys were no exception.... you could smell them 50 feet away.  Buck taint is not a pleasant smell, though maybe a female goat would disagree.

The owner arrived, and sadly, I believe they had no choice really but to dispatch them, as they would not have made it through a winter, and any "natural"death, by freezing or starving, coyote pack, or mountain lion, or being hit by a car, would be prolonged....a gunshot was a quicker, and painless end.  It was the right thing to do, but still sad, and I left before the deed was done.

All of which goes as a reminder that when you bring an animal home, and enclose it with a fence, you become responsible for that animal.  These guys were not protected. It makes me awfully sad.

 Here are my two NOT at all wild goats- fat, friendly and safe. I came home and hugged them.

Meanwhile, the flock, guarded by Floyd the rooster, and watched closely by me when they are out, enjoyed some time scratching around in the yard. Dont plan on having nice flowerbeds if you have free range chickens.

Winter warmth

Getting the firewood split and stacked becomes serious business in late fall... we are always preparing a year in advance, meaning the wood we are working on now is really NEXT winter's fuel.  It takes a year to really season and dry. This late in the year we are always chancing snow and need to get the wood under cover.  

The woodshed is starting to fill up. A lovely sight.

 But there is still lots of work to do.

Critters

First sketch is of a new calf belonging to a fellow blogger. His name is Raylan. Those of you who are fans of the series Justified might get a smile out of the name.

 And this is Miss Marley with her goats. And they ARE 'her' goats.  She loves them.  Here she is licking little Henry, who seems to enjoy the attention, while Waldo waits his turn.  She seems to know it is her job to protect them.  They seem to know she is their protector.  This kind of instinctive interaction between animals is amazing to me.   Nobody taught them this.

Walkable Walkway

Before...

Yay! We completed the front walkway today.  It was originally very old asphalt, that was cracked  and heaved up and very difficult to keep ice free in the winter... besides being just UGLY.

So we had the front end loader guy dig out the old asphalt. We used some patio blocks, and edged them with old bricks we found on the property here that used to be part of an old chicken house.

And then we were able to use a reclaimed granite slab as a new step up to the front door. That sucker was HEAVY.

We were hurrying to get this project done before snow, and then hurried even more to get it finished before my knee surgery so I might actually be able to make it into the house.

Planning Chart