And, Life Goes On

 Whats left of the herd after my(mine and theirs) heart breaking loss of Lucky the herd leader and my best milker, Lil Sister.

 Tinkers twins are a sassy little pair, constantly running and playing.  I got to watch the head butting championship this morning.  Not sure who won, not too sure they know either, LOL

Deltas twins are the same personality type she always gives me, aloof and dignified, LOL

Baby has filled a bag.  This will be her first kidding.  She is Lil Sisters only live offspring.  I'm hoping all goes easy and right for her.  She is officially on kid watch as of this morning.

Pretty darn cold in the house since I ran out of LP.  I owe the gas company still from last year so no more LP for me.  Eh, it'll be warming up soon.  I've got an electric heater on the water lines, what's left of them anyway, so those don't freeze.  Another week or so and it'll all be fine.  Can't wait to see what the electric bill looks like, "sigh", if it's not one thing, it's something else around here.

Not one single seed started here!  Oh boy, if we'd have bet this year, Scifi woulda lost big time!  LOL  Not that I haven't been dying to start seed, it's obviously too darn cold in here.  Looks like 2 more seriously cold nights (9F and 10F) and then a week of mid 20sF.  I can see daylight at the end of the tunnel!  LOL  Another week or so and seeds will be sprouting all over my kitchen!  That, to me, is pure heaven!

Well, I'm late for the off farm job, better get my butt out the door.......

So Long Lucky Boy

 

My little pig nosed baby, he was a fighter.

 

Totally a ball of fun and adventure, all through his too short life.

 

Lucky turned into a wonderful herd leader and pet.  Gone much too soon.

Goodbye Lucky Boy, you were a great goat and I will forever miss you!

Lucky Goat Update

Thank you everyone for the well wishes and caring.  Losing Sis has been devastating for me.

It's dark in the barn.  I've got straw stuffed in every nook and cranny, trying to keep the biting cold wind from getting in.  Borrowed a salamander heater (k1) and had it going last night.  It wasn't running this morning so I don't know when it ran out of fuel.  I've got about a gallon of fuel left and it's relit and going again.  Just need to make it thru today then there's a 2 day warm up I can figure out how to get more k1 for the brutal cold coming next week.

Lucky was shivering bad, he's back off his feed.  He managed to get the sweatshirt mostly off so I got it the rest of the way off and he laid down in some straw.  I covered him with a blanket and by the end of chores, he was still laying with it.  He's bad congested and not a happy goat.  He did not drink any water for me.  I'm worried about it.

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........

Another One Finished and WOOOOHOOOO!

Yep, another one finished.  Just got it done.  This pattern is called BonBon and it reminds me of gumballs in one of those old fashioned candy machines I remember from my youth.  It was actually kind of hard to finish considering all the excitement around here the last 2 days.  Of course, just in time for the weather to get nasty,  Little Miss Tinkerbell kidded for the first time.  She had twins!  It was a little touch and go there for a bit since she wasn't too sure what to do with them.  Nut, instinct did take over and she tended them like an old nanny would.  Now, the suckling thing was a whole story on it's own!  Of course, being a new Mom, she couldn't figure out what they were doing and every time they'd almost get a nipple, she'd turn in a circle around them.  So, Gramma to the rescue, a little kid colostrum to give them some strength and by the end of the day, they were sucking and she was okay with it.  Today, they're still alive, sucking and doing what all baby goats do, sleeping!  Pictures soon!

One Week Down

It's a week to seed starting.  I've hardly had the time to even think about seed starting.  Wow, what a week this has been.  The off farm job has tested the limits of my patience.  The last couple of days most especially.  Not been pleasant.  Too tired to even think much about farming this week.  Too bad the paycheck doesn't reflect all the work I've done.  This just can't last for long or I'll never get anything done around here!


So, now to the blanket raffle.  Today was the last day and it ended up with 7 people entering the raffle.  My new farm hand, RG, pulled the name out of the box for me and Sara B is the lucky winner of the last Camo blanket of the season.  Congrats Sara!  The blanket will be in the mail tomorrow morning.

The baby Lionhead bunnies are big enough to go to new homes now.  I've got a couple people with appointments to view the choices tomorrow evening.  I'll be rebreeding tomorrow with another doe in the house acclimating, to be bred in the next week or so.

The house chickens went outside, finally.  They were starting to wander.  I took advantage of the gloriously warm days we've been having (65F!) and put them out in the old barn.  Can't be having chicken poop on the frontroom floor!  Nasty, LOL!

So, a few days of warm weather with the wind blowing and the farm is just starting to dry out.  Just in time for a couple days of rain, LOL  This time of year is always a hit and miss thing.  I was hoping to get the front garden cleaned out on my only day off this week.  Alas, torrential downpour is the forecast.  That figures "sigh"  Oh well, there's still plenty of time for that.  I'll just have to start seed then, a week early, LOL 

February Already

Whew, January flew by pretty quick.  There's just 3 days left on the blanket auction and the odds are most certainly still good with just 2 ladies entered in the raffle.  As always, $10 an entry with 3 entries for $20 via the paypal button.  This will be the last one of the season so get your entry in quick!

I'm chomping the bit pretty hard, excited to get seed started.  My patience is holding tho and I have resisted the urge to just start hundreds of plants immediately.  LOL, Scifi would be laughing at me now, teasing me about my lack of self control.  Of course, I would retaliate quick with pictures of all my baby bunnies!  Hehehehehe  She'd give me that rolled eyes, sarcastic reply thing and tell me to shaddup, LOL

The house chickens need to go outside!  Oh, they're sneaky and messy.  Thankfully, they stay right there near the food and water without travelling too far out onto the wood floor.  Never thought chickens were very smart but these seem to have trained easily.  I'm excited about getting them out and into the new coop as soon as the weather breaks.  Shouldn't be too much longer.  My new farm partner is pretty happy that they're barred rock chickens, he seems to favor those over other common farm chicken breeds.  I hate to tell him about all the Austrlorps I plan on getting in March, LOL  I'll just wait until he says "what are these?" and I just laugh about it.  Silly man, Austis are better layers, are better Mammas and make a better meal!  Hehehehehe

The farm is a muddy mess.  It's always like this right before spring tho.  The freeze/thaw and freeze again thing always turns the walkways and barnlot into a sloppy mess.  Soon it will warm up, dry up and I can get the gardens turned.  Always feels like a renewal when spring comes.  I guess, in a way, it really is a renewal.

Lil Sister seems to be getting a bit better every day now.  She's not quite up to snuff yet but past the danger zone.  Fluffy kidded while I was at work and her baby was dead when I found it.  Not sure what happened since I wasn't there.  So, 0 for 2 this year.  The spotted Nubian billy didn't put any spots on either of the 2 lost kids and he's already gone back to the man I got him from so I'm hoping Delta has a billy for me this time around.  She's not appearing to be close to kidding so I won't know what's what for a bit longer.  Oh, side note on Fluffy, her mastitis came back and I'm working on clearing that up now.  She's much easier to milk this time around than she was last spring.  Soon as she figured out I was relieving the pressure for her, she suddenly became okay with the whole "let's milk ya" thing.  She's even easy to medicate this time around.  Hmmm, maybe she just "grew up".

So, now I've got one milking.  Not quite as good as Sis but decent enough.  Goats milk soap making will be on the agenda very soon!

Now I'm off to go get something constructive done on my only day off this week.......