Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Goat Care (and General Farm)’ Category

Goat Milk Belly

Posted in Goat Care (and General Farm), tagged , on March 14, 2009| 2 Comments »

Does it look like something other than a goat to you? It is a young buckling, nearing a couple of weeks old, that develops quite the “beer belly,” well, more like a goat milk belly, each time he takes his bottle. The pic doesn’t even do the boy justice! He is a pig, a hog-cow as I call him.

Young goats, and all goats, will eat themselves to a serious state of illness if you let them. I always have my bottle kids on a schedule, which is part of the reason why I shun the sippy buckets, even though bottles are a tremendous amount of work for us.

Our schedule at this point includes 3 bottles a day (for 13 kids), aproximately 16 ounces each, no more than that (buddy)! This kid eats, and eats, and eats, until he is ready to pop. “Stick a fork in me, I am done,” is a perfect statement! But he does not think he is done.

The story behind this little fellow is he started his life in the barn on a very cold morning. His momma rejected him, but accepted the twin sister. We bottle fed him from that day forward. One day he took his bottle in his normal gusto fashion but could not walk immediately afterwards. He drug himself around unlike any youngster I have ever seen. I scooped him up for special house treatment. I determined it was pneumonia. The boy rattled, coughed, spit up mucous, but the fight for life was strong (which means a great deal in a goat). Today he is back to being a normal goat buckling, eating like a pig, and soon to move back to the barn (as soon as we have a less than 20 degree temperature variance, my rules).

Yes, I am the resident vet. Do I enjoy it? Yes. Do I feel frustrated by the chore? No. I feel frustrated when my house is dirty, and when the barn needs a serious mucking out, and when my routine is shattered. But all of that does not matter. I sacrifice for something greater than myself.

I do not want to bring up business today on one hand, this is the weekend, but I wanted to remind everyone in this circle of friends and customers that I do have a monthly newsletter. I try to include newsworthy items (related to farm sustainability, small business, etc…), and Annie’s Goat Hill news. This month I was a little short winded because my brain is still in the kidding fog, so bear with me. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, or if you wish to send a friend to sign up, the envelope (button) to sign up is located towards the bottom of my site index page: http://www.anniesgoathill.com/ . I appreciate the contact!

Before I sign off, it was late yesterday, and it definitely felt like a Friday. I looked out of the window above the sink as I washed kid goat milk supplies and felt warm and fuzzy, comfortable, and then I realized where part of the coziness was coming from. It was nearly 8:00 in the evening, and I could still see daylight. I saw the pair of geese, heard the beginnings of frogs, and saw the starting of green buds on the lilac bushes. It was wonderful, and this is what I saw:

Read Full Post »

Bottle Goat Kids…Cold Brings Back Necessary Barn Attire

Posted in Goat Care (and General Farm), tagged on March 13, 2009| 10 Comments »

Today I wanted to do an update on Chandra’s kids, amongst a few other things fresh on my mind. The boys are doing well. This particular buckling, my husband nic-named “Hoppity,” has had a rough time but he is moving forwards by leaps and bounds. He has shown a lot of strength and perseverance, similar to the thoughts I wrote about the day the c-section was done that brought Chandra’s twins into the world last week.

Every year we encounter a special kid goat project or two. Some are our own projects, some have been projects given to us by friends. Annie was such a project. She came from a difficult birth. My friend lost both her dam and her brother, and I was given the task of bringing Annie home and nursing her to strength that very cold and wet morning. It worked out very well. She is one hefty boer gal now. There is Amelie, also given to us by a friend. When we first saw Amelie she was coiled up in a Rubbermaid tote. It was not a pretty site. After a month of “goat therapy,” as we call it, we got her to stand, strengthened her spine, and now she is a beautiful, healthy, nubian doeling at a year old. The list goes on.

Chandra’s boy had double trouble given to him last week. In the process of figuring out the bad birthing presentation, he was pushed back, pulled forward. He was the one huge kid laying twisted under the other. And, he also had the thin rope around his neck as the vet proceeded to try to fish the boys out. Eventually, after the c-section was done, he sat with his head up, but was purple in the lips, requiring oxygen several times. His brother by that time was walking around on the examination table.

This week Hoppity went from not being able to walk, to walking on a bent leg (day 4), to my husband stinting his leg, to swelling badly in the hoof, to now limping, and sometimes walking on all 3-s, to hopping around as a baby goat should, to beginning to eat like a horse and put weight on. You can see the sparkle in his eyes.

I still have 4 of these critters in my house, why? They are the weakest. One developed pneumonia, one had pink eye (of all things), and then there are Chandra’s two that I am not ready to put in a barn pen yet. They need to continue to regain strength, but we are going to do it!

As far as I am concerned. I really am ready for spring weather. I am ready to hang up the old warm barn coat. The Muck Boots have proven well for me this year, and they will do a great service year round. Funny how years ago I went from black pumps and a briefcase, to the barn boots that I love, to the heavy coat that is growing frazzled, but ever so warm, and the constant attire of jeans and a sweatshirt. I would trade it all to a farm again tomorrow, yes I would! When I made the switch from the office to the barn, I learned very quickly that not only did I need the proper equipment to run the farm, I also needed the proper attire. But again, I am ready for warm sunshine, and 80 or 90 degrees, and yes, I will still wear the boots with shorts while cleaning the milk room, or the barn. I am a farm chick!

Enjoy your day, whatever you do!

Read Full Post »

Warm and Sunny Goat Kid Day

Posted in Goat Care (and General Farm), tagged on March 10, 2009| 5 Comments »

I am working on a project in a few hours in the shop…but first wanted to post a few pics from today’s kid goat antics!

They love the stumps that Bob dumped into the pen a few weeks ago. I had to move the stumps further away from the fence. The kids were ready to jump on out!

Read Full Post »

Reclaimed Lumber A Treasure This Saturday

Posted in Goat Care (and General Farm), tagged , on March 7, 2009| 8 Comments »

Call the couple that lives at Annie’s Goat Hill a little on the different side. But are we?
Bob likes to work with wood, especially reclaimed lumber.

I love old things. I have several things around the house that others have asked, “Why did you want that?”

These past few months, each time we drove to pick up a load of hay, we noticed an old red barn being dismantled (but never caught anyone at the job site). Once it became obvious that the barn was being taken down very carefully, Bob decided to find out who owned the property. We live amongst of community of Amish and Mennonites. Someone normally knows something, if you start asking. The person working on the barn project, cool as can be, does indeed rebuild old barns! He gave us permission to remove any lumber or materials left on the ground (not a structural part).

We claimed red bead board siding, other types of red painted lumber, and my treasures are…(drum roll)…an old barn door with rusty hardware! I am thinking about having it hinged in 3 places and using it as a screen in my living room. Yep, you read that right! And, under the huge piles of rickety lumber I found an old primitive dresser. The dresser was beyond repair but the drawers looked like keepsakes to me. As you can see in the picture above, they are heavy duty drawers. I actually could see them hanging on the wall in the front room of my house. Some of the drawers have 4 compartments. But they are too heavy, despite my plaster walls, I still think I would create troubles. So, we are going to build a rustic desk of sorts, and attach the drawers to the back, as if they were shelves, compartments. I am way too excited!

Annie’s Goat Hill sells gift sets in wooden crates, and when I say they are made from reclaimed lumber, you can trust that they are. You may be getting a part of a 100 year old barn, you may be getting a part of an old piece of non-repairable furniture, you never know. And in these times, I try to go as green as possible (re-use paper, packing materials, and wood). It is no longer tacky, it is smart to the environment and economical!

Some of the barn siding…

Read Full Post »

Goat Kids On The Farm

Posted in Goat Care (and General Farm), tagged , on March 7, 2009| 4 Comments »

For those that said they want to come back for more kid goat pics, here are a few for you today.

Apparently one of my nubian bucks (Emery) visited the boer pen last fall. One day last week we had 3 kids born that look much like their sire. This doeling is a beauty! To the right is Sarah. Sarah was a bottle kid, born on a -5 degree morning. She was very spoiled, gave birth last week, and was interested in us, not her newborn. We are having to bottle raise her buckling.

Today they had fun on the stumps that my husband dumped into the lot a few weeks ago.

Read Full Post »

Refreshing Things

Posted in Goat Care (and General Farm), tagged on March 6, 2009| 9 Comments »

Hello!

Today seems to be a good day.

So far I have moved 4 kids to the barn. Graduation day we call it. Sometimes we have bottle kids in the house. Kids nearly frozen from very cold weather births, some too weak to nurse on their dams. Always a wonderful day to see the kids healthy, strong, moving into their warm new barn suite. A refreshing site!

My husband is heading to a job interview today. Also refreshing. After a year of unemployment, and oodles of job applications and resumes, he has received 2 calls for interviews this week alone. If you believe in prayer or positive thinking, we can use it!

If I weren’t so tired, and I might do it anyhow, I might work on more soap today. Refreshing soap like the peppermint goat milk soap pictured in this post. I love that soap! I had a customer that had problems with infected skin, and swore the soap helped her to heal, and her doctor sided with the soap. Now, I cannot tell you that my soap is medicinal, but the use of essential oils goes back a long way!

What is most refreshing today is the bright sunshine, the spring-like strong breezes, and to see the kids outside having the ball of their life!

I hope you are having a good day too!

Read Full Post »

Goat Kids In The House

Posted in Goat Care (and General Farm), tagged on March 1, 2009| 12 Comments »

You are seeing exactly what you think you are seeing, a diaper on a kid goat.

As hard as I try, I always end up with a few kids in the house. We have had gorgeous weather, but now the wind chill has turned dangerous. With my does giving birth with so much ease, practically no signs of labor beforehand, no sounds while kidding, I am doing double watch duty.

I have four kids in the house at this point.

They do not wear diapers all of the time. Luckily, as expensive as diapers are these days, I found a package in the linen closet from last year.

Often times the baby goats, if needed, will move into one or several of our large dog crates until the wind chill climbs back up into a safety zone.

The first two kids are in the house because they were a part of triplets born (not the same dam). With the cold and wind, and does that seemed overwhelmed, I ended up rescuing one each. The last two were born at 5:00 this morning and never dried off well enough to ward off the cold. I worked on all four to bring their body temperature back up. Two were “iffy,” but all are happy and healthy right now!

I have been busy this Sunday, and still trying to sneak in a nap. We just had two more born within the hour. I helped the mommas dry the kids. I am hoping they gain their own body temperature quick enough so I do not need to remove them from the barn.

I give a lot of credit to my husband, Bob, for being right there, helping as he can.

Our kid goat hotel until Wednesday (when the barn temperatures should be safe again):

Read Full Post »

Kid Goats In The Cold

Posted in Goat Care (and General Farm), tagged on February 28, 2009| 8 Comments »

If you get tired of seeing kid goat pictures, let me know…I’ll stop posting them. You cannot see the little grin on my face as you ask, are you kidding?

A few days ago it was gorgeous, nearly 60 degrees, a couple of kid goats running around and sleeping outdoors. Beautiful site to see! Early yesterday morning brought the storms, a lot of kids born, activity like mad, dampness, but all ended up being well. This morning brought the cold air.

I slept better than I have been sleeping, but woke several times wondering how warm the barn actually was. The barn is normally 12-15 degrees warmer than the outside, even with some doors open. I bundled up and went down before daybreak this morning to feed the 2 bottle boys, and was overjoyed to see kids romping around. Most of the kids were yelling at their mothers, FEED ME, and many were playing kid on the hill with the upside down plastic koi pond that a friend provided for play. My lack of sleep didn’t help the kids, but none the less, I was glad to see everyone happy and healthy.

Once they finished romping, they slept for about an hour. The monitor went silent. Cozy and warm.

I am on the tired side. Since this is a weekend day I plan to play the day by ear. I will work on a soap project at some point, in-between I will be napping and listening. We are about mid way through the boer kiddings now. Chandra, the first dairy girl to freshen this season, is uddered up fairly well, but still holding onto her ligaments to a degree. I have her parked near the monitor in case she decides to go fast on me.

Have a good Saturday!

Read Full Post »

Busy Day In The Goat Barn

Posted in Goat Care (and General Farm), tagged , on February 27, 2009| 8 Comments »

Each kidding season is different, but it seems when there are a plephora of does heavy with kids there is normally at least one day when they let loose at once. Today has been one of those days!

I keep two white boards in the barn. One contains my normal feeding rations, just in case someone should have to take over. The second board is where I draw up a chart that lists the births. One thing extremely important when birthing in numbers is to keep the kidding board up to date.

I just woke from a restoring power nap a short bit ago. The first thing I realized is that the kidding board is not quite up to snuff today. It was perfect at 10:00 A.M., not so perfect from that time forward. Are you giggling with me?

We had to take 2 kids away to bottle feed this morning. From time to time something goes awry. We had strong storms roll through in the early morning hours. One of the does gave birth. She kept up with her twin doeling, but seemed to not realize the buckling was hers. Another first time mother today, Sarah, is oblivious that she gave birth, even though I assisted the birth (the only one so far this year). As soon as I pulled the kid, she wanted our human attention. She was a bottle baby herself years ago. When a dam wants to ignore a kid(s) I try all sorts of tricks, from taking a drop of colostrum and rubbing it on the kid’s mouth (so the doe can smell herself on the kid), to trying to graft a kid to a different dam. Sometimes, due to the urgency of getting the first colostrum into the kid, you have to give in to the bottle.

So…it has been an eventful day. And it just might remain that way!

This morning I packed up soap for shipments. The funny thing is, each time I was almost ready to print shipping labels, something in the barn broke loose. As soon as Bob heard Sarah’s straining on the intercom, for example, we threw on boots and coats. Sarah is a special doe to the both of us.

I finally got my clothes changed, teeth brushed, hair brushed, and made it to town to get a few necessities, and a stop at the post office (since I missed the mail run this morning).

Ahhh…life on a farm. And yes, I still love it.

Read Full Post »

Loving On Those Goat Kids

Posted in Goat Care (and General Farm), tagged , on February 26, 2009| 9 Comments »

For those of you that have heard this before, you are about to hear it again, I did not sleep last night, not hardly a wink. No, barn activity did not keep me awake, I enjoyed the quiet and couldn’t sleep after the first few hours. Hilarious!

We had a few goat kids born around 8:00 yesterday evening. This is Sunday’s 4th kidding. I could see Sunday gearing up as soon as the other does started kidding a few days ago. Good for Sunday, she had a buck and a doe and she is elated. The new buckling runs after her so quickly that he flops over, he is all legs just yet. We like Sunday for various reasons, she is a large boer goat, but we especially love her voice, she bellows with a loud, “Mooowwwww!!!” Her new buckling has a set of lungs too. I like loud lungs, it usually translates to a kid born healthy.

When I fed about an hour ago I did a head count. I kept coming up with one newborn kid missing. I spent a good 20 minutes looking, counting. The kid appeared finally, but I never did figure out where she had been. I did find a tiny gap in the fence. A farmer quickly learns to keep all sorts of materials on hand such as baling wire and pieces of leftover lumber. Needless to say, nobody will be escaping from that gap again any time soon.

I enjoy picking up newborn kids, watching their stubborn little faces, hearing them (sometimes) squawk at the human that picks them up. By golly, they have a mission, and I disturb that well thought out plan. They have playing time mapped out!

After arriving back up to the house (and yes, my back and legs hurt from the many treks down the hill this week), I went out to the shop and cut the soap that I batched yesterday. I love the subtle blue and red marbling in the soap on the left!

The rest of my day is going to be intense office work and listening to the monitor. I have plenty enough to do right here. I am too tired to do anything else, so the focus will be on that!

I hear the frogs on the pond this morning, always a grand sound to hear. They have their own spring announcement to make! They remind me of tiny birds in the early spring. They do not sound like bullfrogs this early in the season. The pair of geese are back this morning as well. I heard the honking of their arrival while I was working in the barn.

I love farm life.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started