Sad Day on the Farm

Say goodbye to Lil Sister.  She died in my arms.  Complications from last months illness hit her weakened system and the bad weather that came in did her in.  Upper respiratory infection she just couldn't beat.  Now Lucky is sick.  He never left her side, now he's got it.  2 hours at the vet has now left me with $12 to make it 10 days to the next pitiful paycheck.  I just can't lose Lucky goat.  My heart won't take it.

This whole day is a pretty devastating hit for me.  Sis was a huge part of every day life here and it's going to be hard to take with her gone.  Now I gotta go cry again........

Busy Day

 How's that redneck saying go?  You know you're a redneck of you've got 15 goats under the porch?  Yep, that's the new hang out.  It's been 98F here the last couple of days and the cool, damp soil under the porch is the "spot".

 Here's Furrball, headed out the front door for the daily adventure.  This one is the only kitten to survive the mystery virus.  He's still a little bit snotty but much better than he's been and actually gaining weight now.

I need to set up the tomato cage today.  The one row is getting pretty darn big in the wood chip mulch section.  I also need to pull the weeds in the next couple of rows, lay down cardboard and get wood chips laid down.  The Hopi tobacco is already flowering and didn't get but 18" tall.  This is the first time I've grown it so I don't know if it's the soil, the temperature (dang hot quick this year) or something else i did to make it bolt like a cauliflower in mid summer.

All week I've been piddling around the farm pouring sweat all week, half heartedly cleaning up stuff the goats have made messes of.  The barns (hay and straw bales they broke and scattered) the firewood piles (they climb on and knock all over) and set up a nice spot in the shade near the horse paddock for the preppers meet up this weekend.

I was pretty nervous about hosting it but it ended up being a pretty relaxing day. 14 people rsvp'd for it but only 8 showed up. Funny how the city folks didn't show. Everybody that did attend is already working in some way to grow or raise food.

It was 98F but a nice breeze blew all day and I had the meeting/relaxing/BBQ area set up in a shaded area just off the horse paddock. The puppies behaved and even Sissy goat was well behaved!

I dug around in the compost pile but nobody wanted to dig in it with me, LOL. I showed different stages of decomposition, we discussed whats good to put in the pile and alternatives for getting things such as meat scraps etc into the compost without ruining the natural flora.

We toured the small gardens here on the farm and discussed weeds, mulching, moisture retention. We never did get across to the big garden tho. it's okay, it was really hot and sweaty in the sun anyway.

We played with the grain grinder and discussed wheats, gluten, fiber content, best ways to mix different kinds of wheat for the beast bread results, how to actually get the best flour from the grinder, different grain mill options and models.

We looked at my canners, the ball blue book and discussed some canning techniques.

We had a good discussion on chickens. Not hard to do with so many running around the farm, LOL

We petted on the cow and discussed milking, milk handling and what to do with all the milk.

We messed with the rabbits a bit and I tried to actually go ahead and butcher one but nobody wanted to do it. Guess they saw my whack and peel video, LOL

My friend/neighbor from up the road and fellow prepper/farmer (http://thunder5ranch.com) brought out a half hog he butchered for the meetup and cooked it on the spot. A couple early arrivals also got to join me for late breakfast, I cooked steak on the grill with a wood fire. You just cant describe the taste difference to someone who has never eaten a real piece of meat cooked with a little skill over an open fire. We cooked taters and corn on an open fire pit I threw together (all old cinder blocks we had laying around) and had a discussion about why cinder block explodes in fire and why these didn't crack etc.


Great discussion over the meal about life, economic collapse, inflation, recession, the middle east, our country in general.

Next one I do, I'll spend more time cleaning up the farm, LOL Mower broke down on me and other things I had to do this past week and I just didnt get to everything I wanted to clean up but hey, it's life, its a farm.

Nice Spring Days

 I got a visitor today.  This beautiful bird keeps flying in the front door and around the house.  Every year, these wonderful little birds grace my farm, raise chicks in the rafters of the old cow barn and eat up all the flying bugs they can catch.

Sonya keeps an eye on the remaining turkey poults that are waiting to be caught up as they run around the kitchen floor.  The lid is damaged from Sissy goat and I haven't fixed it yet.  Guess I need to do that before Sonya gets up from under my chair and decides to catch them for me.  Eh, between the dogs, the cats and a baby goat, the floors need scrubbed every day so a couple of momentarily wayward turkeys isn't going to hurt too much.  Still, that lid needs repaired some time today.

Well, I was going to have my son start seeds to replace what got damaged by him not having the common sense to put the goat out when nobody is home.  I'm out of peat pellets.  The weird spring we had, all the seed that didn't sprout and the 2 rounds of restarting seeds already this year had depleted my stock of pellets.  So, off the the dreaded wally world where the only stock of peat pellets is.  Lo and behold, wally world was out of them and just like the lawn and garden stuff not being stocked here after July 4th, they aren't getting any more for this year.  So, I made him go to the amish greenhouse and buy me replacements.  At only .25 each, he still had to spend $30 to replace what the goat ate.  The boy now has a better appreciation of what it takes to feed us and why I spend so much time starting and tending seedlings for our garden. 

Big step for weaning Sissy the baby goat today!  She finally ate all her morning feed!  Guess the watering down the milk trick is working.  She's spending all day outside now (unless it's raining) but still isn't folding into the flock yet.  All the does think she's wanting to nurse off them so they chase her off.  The other kids play with her but she knows she doesn't have a protector in the herd.  As the other goat kids get closer to weaned, she will fold in with them like Lucky did.  It's rough on such a social animal to be all by themselves not to mention being stuck outside by themselves either in a barn that floods or one where the chickens crap all over ya.  Soon, she'll be a big girl and off having adventures with the other kids.

More garden prep, planting and weeding to do today, plus catch the turkeys!

Pretty Dang Angry

 This is what I came home to today after picking hubster up from work.  My son was supposed to be home but instead, took off and left the goat in the house.

 Sissy stepped on these seedlings, smashed 6 beyond saving.

 Ate all my replacement hot peppers, the artichokes, the newly sprouted herbs too.

Then, Sissy jumped on the turkey brooder top, caved it in and killed half the turkey poults trying to get out.

Gee son, thanks for keeping an eye on the farm while I'm gone.  At least you could have been smart enough to put the goat out before y ou ran off to hang out with your friends......

I"M NOT HAPPY

Patience is a Virtue

A virtue I don't possess I guess, I can hardly stand not getting plants out in the dirt.  This weekends over night temperatures are predicted to be in the mid 30s F.  Too cold!  Bad enough I will have to cover the strawberry plants I just built boxes for and stuck in the dirt.  Gurneys had a good sale and I could not resist.  No goat munching for these berry plants, I got them fenced off at the end of my small front garden spot, in boxes I built from scrap laying around.  Pictures when they actually look like something other than dead twigs in dirt ;)

How about those honkin big ears on Jake?  He's my chicken killer.  Wouldn't be bad if he'd just wipe out a few of those roosters but if it moves, he's on it.  He's killed 4 hens and got a chick this morning.  Not sure how the chick ended up outside of the make shift brooder house, but it did and he had it.  He instantly dropped it when I said his name and gave me the "I'm guilty" look but the chick didn't make it.  So, now I just have 10 chicks with the hen in the front yard brooder house.

Lil Sister is growing and working on being weaned.  She's now spending her days running around outside and sleeping on the porch.  I'm not pushing her too hard, her herd mates outside are still nursing all the time.  I really don't feel like she should be weaned before she's ready but she does need to be outside as much as possible.  Especially since she jumped up on the sprouting table and wiped out all my tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers and knocked all my herb cups off.  Bad goat!  Restarted what she ate and all the tomatoes are germinated and up.  Still waiting on the peppers.  Herbs have all been restarted.

The turkey poults are all still alive and growing.  Jumping out of the box enough I had to rig up a lid for it already.  No turkey poop on the floor!  They are still chick fluff so no going outside any time soon.  Wish they'd hurry up and feather out.

I've got the oils in the pot on the stove and the milk thawing for a batch of soap...

Goat Entertainment

 Well, I needed to run to the farm store for a couple of things.  When I got home, Sissy goat had played on my desk and knocked everything off it, chewed up some of the garden plants on the grow shelves and dumped the trash.  She had an elbow noodles box stuck on her head.  When I hit the door, she jumped up and started to cry.  She had to cry for a couple minutes while I was laughing and looking for the camera!  Good thing she did something extremely funny or I would have been pretty upset by the mess she made and the plant damage.

 Apparently, all Sissys excitement wore her out because she promptly found the back of the couch and took a nap!

 I got what I needed from the farm store plus a couple extra things.  These turkey poults were marked down from $7.99 to $2.00.  They're white turkeys, not my favorite at all but for $2, I couldn't pass em up.  I whipped up a 2'x4' box to put them in, something big enough for them to grow and keep Sissy and the puppies out.

Plenty of seeds still germinating and plenty of not goat chewed seedlings growing, waiting for the over night temperatures to get above 45F.

It's still a bit soggy here from the weekend rains.  Lots still to do as far as farm clean up but it is coming along, slowly but surely.  I've got a full schedule of busy work all this week plus some milk in the freezer for a batch of soap.  I'm down to my last 3 bars, guess I should get moving on it, eh?