Hay Time

Well the day certainly started out a little panicked this morning.  I was in the barn doing the normal routine of bringing horses in from the night and feeding all the farm animals when Ezra, the buck goat, decided he wanted fed NOW and rammed down the stall door. 

Thankfully, because he had not yet eaten breakfast, he was only too happy to follow me and his bucket of food into another stall to be locked up.  Otherwise, I'm not sure how I would have gotten him in there.  He doesn't much like being handled.

Once that was done, I went on to feed Chiba (the female goat) and discovered the little bunny who had escaped the day before hanging out in her stall. So then I had to chase the little one down and lock him back up with his other bunny buddies. 

Shortly after that, the hay guy showed up to cut and bale hay, which made me smile, knowing I will save some money this year by having my own hay field cut and baled.

Happy Friday All! ~A

What (almost) a year can do...

A little flashback to some of the farm babies, showing how they've grown over the past year (or less).

June 2013 (We're focusing on the little yellow guy here)

Remember that little yellow guy?  Here he is in December of 2013

 

And how about this cute little man back in March of 2013...

 Here he is now in December of 2013.  (With a suspicious turkey watching from behind....)

Preparing for a Deep Freeze on the Farm

One of the not-so-nice things about living on a farm (with animals) is dealing with cold winter weather.  The animals, but maybe not the horses so much, seem to hate it as much as I do.  The chickens want to roost and linger in the barn all day, rather than brave freezing wind and snow.  But, the chickens (and duck) were happy to get out and roam around a bit over the weekend, once the temperatures rose to about 37 degrees.  And the turkeys and bunnies were pretty active as well.

With the slight break in the weather, I jumped on the chance to get the heat lamps up and ready to get the animals through the next two nights of arctic wrath. I also took the opportunity to pin down the Billy Goat (with some help), to get his hooves trimmed and fit him with a halter.  What a chore! But the collar alone wasn't giving me enough control, and he was still able to swing his head around and puncture holes in my thighs with his horns.  Not fun.  Or safe. 

Speaking of goats, I've been struggling with castration confusion.  If my (hopefully) pregnant doe delivers a buck, is it best to castrate it by cutting or banding?  I can't decide.  If anyone out there has any advice I would greatly appreciate your feedback on this one.

We had a nice dinner to close the day.  The husband wanted steak.  We don't eat much cow, maybe a handful of times per year.  I think if we raised one of our own that could change.  But we love pork, chicken, duck, rabbit, and the occasional squirrel (don't judge).  I'd much rather have a pig or two than a cow.  Or ten goats, but that's another story...

Getting back to the dinner.  This was way too much meat for me to eat, and as expected, I only managed to get through about one quarter of it.  Really, who eats like this?  Other than my husband... But I guess this is why so many of us Americans are large, unlike the Europeans, who's plates would contain only a quarter of what mine did to begin with!  I need to make a mental note to start eating more like a European.   And of course after all that food I couldn't be bothered with taking down the Christmas Tree and putting away the decorations.  I could barely walk. 

My Goat Stinks

My little baby Boer Goat is in "rut." He's become somewhat of a demon, spawned from the pit of hell itself.  Okay, not really. But it makes him sound like a bad-ass, right? This is his first rut; he's nine months old. "Rut" means the little guy is desperately seeking to test out his "buckiness" on any willing nearby doe goat.  Or log, or chicken...

You can't blame a guy for tryin"?

Not so much a "baby" anymore, I'm told he will become even more "fragrant" (downright nasty!) and aggressive next year, and the years to come. Personally I don't find him that offending.  Or aggressive. Although he did knock me down once, and he would absolutely love it if I could butt heads with him.

I'm also told that soon he will start peeing on himself (goat cologne?). Apparently lady goats find that sort of thing attractive.  And I won't dare mention what else he does to himself...But he's still my little man, and I love him so... So far.