Leaves of Grass

I wonder if Whitman ever contemplated the cutting, raking and baling of all those millions of blades of vegetation. 

After waiting what seems like forever, the hay fields in our area have finally been able to be cut, dried and baled! 

Our local feed store ran out of the large square and round bales in early April.  We could still buy small squares of sub-par mixed grass for $7.50 a bale though.  No thanks.  Luckily we have a secret squirrel source and Paul was able to get another 50 small squares to hold us out to the first cutting of the season. 

On top of the empty hay barns, last month our area received record amounts of rainfall and caused flooding in the lakes and rivers.  There seemed to be no end to the rain and I was getting a bit uneasy about our hay supply since it seemed that the first haying would be happening much later than normal.

We still have about twenty bales left in the barn, but have plans to go out and buy some hay in the fields in the next day or so.  I’m sure there are others just as anxious as we are to get some fresh munchies for their livestock.

I really hate having to rely on buying hay for the critters, especially during the spring and summer when there seems to be grass growing everywhere – everywhere except on our place that is.  Well, that isn’t entirely true.  The grass we do have is lush, but it isn’t where we could let the goats, mule or horse out to graze as those areas are either in the front yard with the fruit trees or around the garden where we don’t have fencing.  Right now there is only one area besides the goat pen that is fenced for grazing and it isn’t that large.  I’ll keep three goats in that area at a time and rotate them every other day so everyone has a chance to munch on greens.  The goats that are in the pen have hay, but I’ve also been trying to cut three or four bags of fresh grass for the pen-bound goats using the push mower every day.

Any time I go past a large lawn or a field being cut just for the sake of keeping the vegetation down, I think to myself, “My goats could be eating that!” or “Do you know how many bales of hay that could have been?”. 

I know it’s not just having the grass, but the fencing required to keep the livestock contained to the grassy areas.  And it’s not just having the grass to hay, but having the equipment to actually process the grass into hay suitable for storage.  It’s all about logistics.

Paul has been working on making pasture out of the woods with the dozer and tractor, but it’s slow going.   And once the areas are removed of trees, we still have to plant grass and fence in the areas.  If you ever move to the country and want livestock, learn from my mistake and buy something with some pasture and fencing!  I will never again complain about the price of pastureland. 

Free Seeds!

Mama Tea over at A Farmish Kind of Life is having a seed giveaway.  And not just plain ‘ole seeds, but Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds!

Go take a look see and enter for your chance to win some neat herb and vegetable seeds.  You get three chances to win, just post a comment on her blog and:

1.    Give a gardening tip

2.    Post her Giveaway on your blog

3.    Become a Follower

Easy as pie!  Anyways……

In giving my gardening tip for one of my entries, I thought I would share it here along with a picture:

I kept the hoops up & used them for supports.

Paul made me two raised beds right in front of the house last year (think easy weeding & picking) and this year he put some PVC hoops over them so we could extend the growing season by making them into hoop greenhouses for the early spring and winter.

Since I didn’t get my butt in gear earlier in the year, we never put plastic over the hoops so I didn’t start anything outside earlier than our last frost date.  But before we put away the hoops (that we just put up), I thought that I could use them to hold up the peas on the ends, and even the tomatoes and peppers in the middle of the beds. 

Paul tied some pieces of bailing twine horizontally across the hoops and the peas now have a support system.  I’m thinking of doing this (or having him do it…hehe) in the middle hoops when the other vegetables get taller.

We’ll be having fresh peas in no time!

Milking a Cloud

Today was Cloud’s second official milking.  I normally let the kids have all of mom’s milk for the first five days, but Cloud only had one kid, and of course, she favors one side so the other side looked very full. 

Cloud wasn’t very friendly as I didn’t spend enough time with her last year.  So about two months ago, I started training her to eat on the milk stand.  For the first week, I just let her eat.  The second week I started petting her and getting her used to me sitting down next to her on the stand.  Then I gradually started touching her udder and massaging it.  She didn’t care for it much, but I persisted.

So milking went pretty well.  She did freak a bit when her doeling started bawling so I had to let the kid into the milk parlor to calm her down.  I emptied the un-favored side and was quite happy with how she milked.  Nice sized teats and a large orifice. 

I’ve been going back and forth on which types of goats to keep. 

Nettie is my purebred Saanen, and I love her to pieces; she’s going to stay here until she goes to the lush, green pastures in the sky. 

Ishtar is Nettie's daughter and is also a purebred Saanen.  She puts out a lot of milk like her mom, but her teats are nowhere as nice as Nettie’s.  She’s also larger than Nettie and I had considered having her bred to a Boer to get some meaty kids, but am still undecided on that.  Ishtar has also taken over herd queen status from Nettie and I’m not very happy about it.  Not only because I have a soft spot for Nettie and hate to see her lose her status, but because Ishtar rules with an Iron Fist........

Isthar giving me the Evil-Goat-Eye

......and as much as I understand that there has to be a goat pecking order, she is just really mean to everyone else in the herd.

Annette and Cloud are Nettie’s first Mini-Saanen kids (½ Saanen and ½ Nigerian Dwarf).  They are probably what I will continue to breed for, especially after seeing that both have very nice udders.  Both have nice attachments, teats that I can grasp with my entire hand, and even better, they both have a large teat orifice.   And that means faster milking! 

Feed prices are going higher and higher, so I don’t have much choice but to find homes for the rest of the herd.  That means finding homes for Nettie’s two doelings, Annette’s buckling and wether, Ishtar’s doeling and wether and even Cloud’s cute-as-a-button doeling.

That’s seven kids I have to get rid of.  Although I actually have a buyer for the buckling and two wethers, so I need to re-home three doelings and one wether.  I really thought I’d have a problem finding homes for the males, but it seems I have the opposite problem now.  Who would’a thunk it?

Unfortunately, I’ve been finding out that the goat market has taken a nose-dive around here.  I suppose it’s probably due to the fact that it’s spring and everyone has either lambs or kids for sale and the market is flooded.  I’d hate to just take them to the sale barn.  Not only do you not get squat from the sale, but you don’t really know where they are going.  It’s not that I’m totally against anyone buying the male goats for butchering, but if it’s at all possible I’d like them to go to a home where the females can become useful as a family milker or where the wether can be a pet.

If I get really desperate I suppose I could hold on to the doelings (ugh, I’m already talking myself out of having to sell them!), have them bred and then sell them as milkers next year….but then I’m back to having to buy more feed throughout the summer and winter, and then hope they sell next spring.  Because if they don’t, I’ll not only still have them, but their kids as well.  Oh boy.

Anaconda of The Ozarks

Yesterday afternoon, Paul tells me that there is a huge, like six-foot snake in the wood pile. 

Ok.  And your point is?

Well, after much insisting that I come out and "take care" of it (with some #8 shot), I go out to the wood pile to investigate this Anaconda of The Ozarks.

"Well, don't you see it?"

"Uhm, no."

"There, he just went under that log."

So I flip over a log or two and see the snake.  And decide that the gigantic serpent is not, in fact, so gigantic that it warrants splattering its slender body against our store of firewood.

So I grab the snake and take him (her?) into the house....

where he (she?) is put into a pillowcase.....

and driven down the road to be released into the "wild".

Normally, I wouldn't really consider killing a black snake unless it's a return customer to the hen house.  But when Paul said that it was a huge snake, I did consider the fact that if it were large enough, it could, possibly, maybe, theoretically, eat one of my cats. 

And another reason I even considered killing this supposedly enormous snake was that I just saw a darned near huge snake earlier in the day. 

I was walking up to the neighbor's house when I saw what looked like some type of road kill.  It was furry and had black scales.....like somebody had run over a snake and a squirrel at the same time.  But upon closer examination, I realized it was both a snake and a squirrel!  The snake was in the middle of swallowing a squirrel.  I had no idea that black snakes got big enough to eat big, fat, tree rodents.

Even though it was an impressively sized black snake, I still let it live.  I did remove it from the middle of the road though (i.e. picked it up by the tail & tossed it into the woods), but didn't bother to wait until he was finished swallowing the squirrel. 

I'm nice, but not that nice.

Paul's Take

The snake Carolyn picked up was obviously a different snake.  The huge snake must have slinked away while she was taking her sweet-old-time getting to the wood pile.

Eight is (more than) Enough

Last night was the beginning of the end….the end of Kidding Season!

Cloud’s due date was supposed to be on Sunday, but yesterday morning I noticed that she had lost her plug and her ligaments were very loose.  Being a first freshener, I wasn’t sure what her particular signs of labor would be, but the other two physical signs were a good indication that she may kid before Sunday.

So I got my butt in gear and finally cleaned out the kidding pen, put in fresh shavings and straw and got everything ready for a pending birth.  Cloud was still walking around pretty much like normal and didn’t seem any different until just before dusk.  Paul, Rhiannon and I were out in the goat pen for a while and Cloud was starting to talk to herself.  I kept an eye on her and didn’t see her arch her back and didn’t notice any contractions, although I did notice her tail was held a little bit higher.  We brought her into the kidding pen and turned on the baby monitor just before we turned in for the night.

Rhiannon and I were sleeping (well, Rhiannon was at least) when I heard a couple of goat-grunts.  Nothing that sounded too bad, so I just kind of stayed in bed and kept my ears tuned to the monitor.  A few minutes later, I heard Cloud grunt again, so figured I should get up, put some old duds on and grab a magazine while I waited out her labor in the barn.  But before I could even wrench Rhiannon from my arm, I heard another grunt, and less than a minute later, another louder goat-grunt.  So I bolt out of bed, throw my barn clothes on, grab the flashlight and trot out to the barn.  When I get there and open the kidding pen door, I saw Cloud laying on the floor and figured she was starting hard labor……..except it was OVER! 

Right next to her was a little brown and white kid, half cleaned off and starting to shake her head!  So I grabbed some clean towels out of the kidding box and finished cleaning the little doeling off.

Cloud stood up after a few minutes and I nudged the doeling towards Cloud’s udder and she almost immediately started nursing. 

This had to be the quickest delivery I’ve ever attended!  And I felt very unneeded!  All I did was tie off the umbilical cord and clean up some of the birthing goo.  I sat in the barn for about an hour waiting for Cloud to pass the afterbirth, but eventually gave up to go back in the house and get some shut-eye.

This morning Cloud and the doeling were doing just fine and I cleaned up the pen, found the placenta, gave her some fresh water, grain and alfalfa pellets.  I usually give the mom and kids a few days alone in the kidding pen, but for some reason Paul thought it was imperative that they all be outside so he opened the door and they both wandered out into the big goat world.  It was a beautiful and warm day so I suppose there was no harm in letting them out.

Krazo Acres 2011 Kidding Season Stats:

Nettie: 3 doelings, Annette: 2 bucklings, Ishtar: 1 doeling & 1 buckling, Cloud: 1 doeling

Homestead Hazards

Pretty normal, innocent looking, farmish kind of objects, aren’t they?

But both of these relatively harmless looking objects have recently become the center of potentially life threating situations.

Our goat herd is contained using cattle panels for fencing, which means the smaller kids can easily go in and out of the area.  Not the ideal type of fencing for little goats, but that’s what we have right now.  Anyways, one afternoon I heard one of the kids bawling, which isn’t anything out of the ordinary.  Except that the bawling went on for several minutes straight.  So I go outside to investigate and find that a kid had wedged herself in between the boards of a wood pallet.  The pallet had been leaning up against the garden entrance as a temporary gate and had been knocked down….probably by the same goat stuck in said pallet.

I didn’t think either of her hind legs were in such a position that they were in danger of being broken, so I tried to ease her out of the pallet.  Of course she struggled like a crazy-goat-kid, screaming the entire time, so I had to stop and reevaluate the situation.  I tried to pull up the board with a pry bar, but I wasn’t strong enough to pop the nails out.  I went into the garage and grabbed the little cordless trim saw.  I was able to cut one side out, but I wasn’t able to safely cut the other side without the possibility of cutting into her back leg.  So there she sat, bawling even more because of the noisy saw, all the fussing and my constant cussing.

What I needed was a strong pair of hands to help me pry the board off.  But Paul was at work as were my neighbors.  I did, however, have my wonderful brother-in-law just down the road!  So I called him up and in just a few minutes he was here flexing his biceps and got the board off and the goat free.  She jumped right out, kind’a gave me a nasty goat-look, and ran right to mom for a snack. 

During routine goat /chicken rounds yesterday afternoon, I went into the kidding pen, where I’ve also been keeping three of Christine’s Silky chickens.  The kids were out of the pen for the day, but the chickens stay in there all the time.  I went in to give them some fresh water and counted not three, but two chickens…..there should be two roosters and a hen.  Oh great, I think to myself, some raccoon or opossum or snake got in here and had an afternoon snack of a chicken.  And of course, it had to be the hen and not one of the annoying roosters.  So I look around for any tell-tale signs of a chicken struggle or chicken feathers / parts, but find nothing.  I sigh and tell myself that it’s my fault for not having a more secure chicken run.  I finish filling the water and feed trays and pick up a goat food bucket in the corner to return it to its proper place on the wall. 

And when I pick up the overturned feed bucket, out pops the missing hen!  She was kind of wet, probably from being underneath that bucket for several hours, but otherwise unharmed.  Luckily it wasn’t a very warm day yesterday otherwise she could have cooked under there.

Two close-calls because of improperly attached items.  And I know it’s hard to do, especially when there seems to be farm junk, equipment and tools everywhere, but hopefully I’ll be more careful about those in-plain-sight dangers around the homestead.

PS – I’m not ignoring comments you guys have made, or ignoring your blogs, but am STILL unable to post comments! 

Frozen Yogurt Cups

Rhiannon is an ice cream fiend.  She can hear you whisper the word a block away and will run to the kitchen & point up at the freezer.

We’re flush with milk now as I’m milking three goats, so I’ve been making a few batches of homemade yogurt (and cheese, and anything else I can think of to get “rid” of the milk).  The first batch didn’t gel up as much as I’d normally like so I figured it would be best used in smoothies!

Although I’d love to make my own ice cream, I’ve yet to perform such acts of magic.  Yes, I know it’s simple, (as simple as making, say yogurt….and I still manage to screw that up) and maybe one day soon I’ll post on my frozen dairy adventure, but for now we’ll both have to settle with frozen yogurt smoothies.

So I’ve been taking some of the yogurt, milk, a few ice cubes and some sort of fruit and throwing it all into the blender.  Depending on the sweetness (or not-so-sweetness) of the fruit, I’ll add a little packet of Stevia and / or a drop of Vanilla.

We’ll have a smoothie right away and I’ll save the rest to make into frozen yogurt treats.  Since I save hillbilly-tupperware, I have plenty of the little yogurt containers with lids.  The perfect size for a little toddler (or her Mom) craving a frozen sweet treat.

Yogurt & peach smoothie ready to pop into the freezer!