Final lambing of the season

Fee finally lambed. Margaret and I noticed it this afternoon just as a storm was rolling in. Of course, we wouldn't let a little storm stop us from finding out if she'd had a ram or a ewe, so we headed out to the far pasture -- and yes, it is the farthest pasture from the house -- with dark skies and thunder in the distance. The little lamb was old enough that it was rather spunky, so we couldn't get very close, and it would run away with its mother. Then the sky opened up and we ran under a giant oak tree for shelter. I always used to think it was "so Hollywood" for people to run under a tree when it was raining, but to my surprise, it actually kept us 95% dry! At one point, the rain was really pouring down, but we stayed very close to the tree trunk, and we only got a few drops on us now and then.

When the rain finally stopped, we continued stalking the little lamb for about 10 minutes, but when the sky started to look threatening again, I told Margaret I was headed to the house! Between the barn and the house, I saw two turkey hens attacking one of the goslings, so I ran to the chicken house to rescue it, and just as I turned towards the house again, the rain began to pour. Yes, Margaret was still out in the far pasture trying to catch that little lamb to determine if it was a he or a she!

About 20 minutes later, Margaret came inside to give us the news that it was a ewe lamb! Sorry we don't have any pictures yes. The weather has not been cooperating. It is pure white, so it looks a lot like the little ewe lamb that was born a month ago to Fee's daughter. We are beginning to wonder if any ewe in this line can throw anything other than a white ewe!

Happy Mothers Day!

Today has been great so far -- and promises to get better. My husband is making homemade enchiladas for dinner. He fixed cheese blintzes for breakfast -- made with goat cheese, of course!

Earlier today, a family came by to pick up a goat that is to be a Mother's Day gift. Normally I don't like to sell goats as gifts-- how do you know that someone really wants a pet goat? But I know this one is going to a good home where it is wanted because this is a repeat customer.

I am making buttermilk almost every day lately. We've been eating buttermilk pancakes and buttermilk biscuits at least every other day. They are so good! Making buttermilk is easier than making yogurt, and I didn't think anything could be easier than yogurt.

The cheesecake in the picture was taken to a potluck yesterday. One woman said it was the best cheesecake she'd ever had, although it didn't taste like any cheesecake she'd ever had before. When I told her it was made with goat cheese, she paused with her fork in mid-air and then with even more surprise in her voice, she repeated, "This is really good!"

Economic realities of turkeys

Katherine came in this morning to tell me that six slate poults (baby turkeys) are dead this morning. That bring the total to around 20-something, which is half the number we started with. They cost $8 each, and with half of them dead, that means they effectively cost $16 each. Add $5 processing cost to each one, and they cost $21 each before they've even eaten one bite -- and turkeys eat a lot. Over the next six months, they'll eat hundreds of dollars of feed.

This morning's poults died as a result of either getting too cold or suffocating. People argue about whether or not they're dumb -- and we're rather inclined to agree that they are not the brightest birds. We have a brooder that's open on the bottom. Baby chicks come and go as they feel warm or cold. This gives them room to run around outside if they want -- and if they're feeling warm enough. Maybe baby turkeys aren't smart enough for this system. Overnight a bunch of turkeys had left the warmth of the brooder and huddled into the corner of the stall where the brooder is located. This morning, my daughter found six dead ones in the corner. Apparently, at some point last night, they ran out into the stall, and when they got cold, they huddled in a corner rather than running back under the brooder. This has worked quite well since they arrived last month. Why did they suddenly forget where to go for warmth last night?

We had high mortality last year with the turkeys, and we lost money big time. I didn't want to do turkeys again, but the family talked me into it. Quite a few last year were lost to equally stupid reasons ... a stray cat that came along and managed to eat about a dozen babies, a dozen that just wandered off one day and never returned. Yeah, we learned from that. This year, we have them in an area that is definitely inaccessible to any varmint that might come along; and we will only use a controlled release plan for putting them on pasture, starting them on a small fenced in area until they're smart enough to go into their house at night, and then giving them unlimited room to roam.

I am equally unhappy with the job the mama turkeys have been doing with their babies. One hatched about six of the eggs in her nest, then left. Several more eggs hatched or were pipped, but the babies died, of course, from getting cold. Too bad we didn't realize what had happened until it was too late. The six babies all disappeared within a few days.

Two more hens had nests on top of the barn storeroom. I heard chirping up there a couple days ago, so we put food and water up there for them. One by one, however, they fell down to the barn floor. The mothers are quite odd. Yesterday, they left the babies huddled in a corner with a barn cat eyeing them, while they chased a squirrel and a duck, who presented no threat to their babies at all. I repeatedly redirected the barn cat and finally picked up all the babies and put them near the two hens, who don't seem to know or care which babies belonged to whom.

Another hen has a nest on the floor in the corner next to the storeroom. She suddenly has a few babies, and we're thinking it's some of the ones that fell from the top of the storeroom, where the other hens hatched eggs. We're keeping an eye on her, because it is entirely possible -- probable -- that she will leave her nest before her eggs are ready to hatch since she already has a brood of poults. If she leaves, we need to get those eggs into an incubator ASAP so they will still hopefully hatch.

It is hard to believe this is our fifth year raising turkeys. We still feel like novices. The past couple years we nailed tin into the corners to round them out and eliminate the corner. If you don't have a corner, that should eliminate the risk of them huddling into corners, but that had it's problems too. We had some turkeys get stuck behind the tin and die, even though the tin was two feet high -- somehow they managed to go over the top and fall into the small space behind the tin. Who knew baby turkeys could jump that high? We tried putting chicken wire in the corners to round it out, thinking that they'd still be able to breathe if another poult got on top of them, and some still died -- probably from the weight of the birds stacked on top of them. They don't even really need corners to die -- last week I went into the barn in the early evening to find about 20 piled on top of each other next to the wall, so I herded them all back under the brooder.

On one hand, I can see why commercial turkey growers go to such lengths to reduce mortality -- putting drugs in the feed and water and keeping them confined forever. On the other hand, none of those things make the turkeys any smarter. My daughter had seen the poults huddled into a corner last night, and she herded them all back under the brooder. I guess someone could spend the night with them to make sure they all stay put ... but ... it already looks like the turkeys will be a financial loss this year. I don't know how to turn it around at this point.

ABCs of fencing ... and horses

I just realized that I keep talking about the movable fencing for the bucks, and it is highly likely that no one has any idea what I'm talking about! So, I decided to take a picture. Portable electric fencing is netting that has electrified horizontal strings. The vertical strands are plastic and do not conduct electricity. The bottom strand does not conduct electricity either, because it would ground out (not work) if it were always resting on the ground. Although the portable electric fencing works very well to keep the goats inside, it works equally well to keep coyotes outside. Every 12 feet there is a post that sticks into the ground, and we have extra posts that we put on the corners. At the moment, our biggest limitation is that we have to put the fence near another electric fence so that it can be energized.

The reason we started using this type of fencing is because we have 32 acres, and the perimeter is fenced in rusty old barbed wire, which would not keep goats contained, and it's far too expensive to replace all of that with new woven wire. We have quite a few newly fenced pastures, but that's only about 6-7 acres of our property. Since we can't afford to permanently fence in all of it, we decided to start using the movable fencing so that we could utilize more of the pasture. We can fence in a 40 X 40 area by using one fence, or if we put them together, we can fence in an area that's 80 X 80. Last week, we first used only one fence, and three bucks ate down the grass in 2-3 days. We decided to put two rolls of fencing together, so hopefully that will last them a week since it's four times as much grass. We also added two more bucks though, so ... we'll just have to see how fast they eat the grass! If you want to learn more about the temporary fencing, you can check out Premier's Web site, which is where we bought it.

I made two batches of soap this morning. This afternoon we visited a farm to look at horses. My daughters really like to ride, and although I am interested in riding, I am more interested in having a draft animal. I've thought about training a goat to pull a cart, and my daughter has talked about training her miniature donkey, but he has to be at least two years old. I'd like an animal that can help us in the garden pulling a small plow, as well as one who can pull a cart when it's loaded with firewood or hay or manure. We looked at a few different horses owned by this person, and unfortunately the one that would suit our needs perfectly is $2,000. I know it's not a bad price for the horse, but we just don't have $2,000 sitting around right now. My daughter has saved up $600 towards a horse so far, and she asked me if I could help pay for it, which I can't. I wish I could though, because I know it would be a good helper around the farm! Yesterday as I was moving straw from the barn to the garden (to use as mulch) I was again thinking of how useful a draft animal would be!

Another new lamb!

I just love spring! There are babies, babies and more babies! Last night, when I went out to do chores, I walked down to the walnut grove to see if either of the last two pregnant ewes had lambed. I was quite a distance away when I saw that Majik had her head down as if she were eating, but there was something moving on the ground beneath her head. I felt a little burst of hope as I thought it looked like she was licking a lamb! As I got closer, my suspicions were confirmed when I saw a little black lamb covered with white spots! All of this year's lambs are out of our brown spotted ram, Teddy. We bred all the ewes to him because we wanted spots, and out of all the lambs so far, we've only had one solid colored lamb! I got close enough that I thought I saw testicles between his back legs, then a few minutes later, I saw him pee, which left no doubt in my mind that he was a ram. Like dogs, male sheep pee from the middle of their stomach, whereas with girls, the pee comes from under their tail.

Today is a gardening day. We are now two weeks past our final frost date, so it's time to get everything into the ground. In addition to gardening, we'll also have to move the bucks. We're using temporary fencing to move them around the pasture across the creek. And I'll keep checking the sheep pasture to see when Fee lambs!

Twin bucklings!

Margaret came in this morning from chores and said that Scandal would definitely be giving birth today. Her tail ligaments were completely gone -- so gone that the skin was sunken on each side of her spine where it was attached to her tail. That is a sign that labor is coming soon. In another hour, Scandal was walking around making little noises. Shortly after noon, Scandal's water broke, which doesn't usually happen with goats unless birth is really going to happen shortly. Katherine and I joined Margaret and Scandal in the barn. Margaret said she wanted to catch, and Katherine volunteered to be photographer. I just had the honor of watching.

Last year, Scandal birthed her babies with little more effort than what is required for walking, so when she started screaming, we were a little worried. She was pushing really hard, stretching out her legs and rolling onto her side, stretching out her neck. She'd lay her ears back, which goats only do when they are really unhappy. After a few minutes, we saw a hoof sticking out about an inch. After a couple more pushes, we saw two hooves. The best position for baby goats to be born is that the head is laying flat against the two front legs -- so it's a good thing to see two sets of hooves presenting. We started to become concerned though, because she was pushing really hard, but as soon as the contraction was over, the hooves would go back inside. After several contractions we didn't see the nose, and the hooves were not staying out, so I told Margaret to go wash her hands, because it looked like Scandal might need help. I was afraid that the baby's head was turned backwards, laying over its spine, creating a big lump of baby rather than a nice long torpedo-shaped kid. Margaret went next door to the shed to wash her hands because there's hot water in there. Just as she was returning, we finally saw a tongue on top of the hooves -- then a nose! The only thing Margaret did was grab the hooves and hold them firmly so they couldn't go back in when Scandal took a break, and in only a couple more pushes, the baby came out. We could immediately see why she had such trouble -- he was huge!

Scandal stood up immediately, causing the umbilical cord to snap, and blood squirted on my white sneakers, which I had just washed (of course). She turned around and started licking off the baby. We helped to get the big mess of mucous off of him, but Scandal was very attentive. After 15 or 20 minues, she plopped down again and gave a little push. My daughters both said something about another baby, and then it practically fell out. It was obviously much smaller than its brother. Scandal again jumped right up and started licking her second baby. We noticed the umbilical cord hanging out, which means there are no more babies. It was just time to admire the two bucklings and wait for the placenta.

Still waiting ... but being productive

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we're still waiting on Scandal, and she's not even acting like she's going to give birth in this century now! She just walks around like a perfectly happy goat version of Buddha!

Today we filled four orders for goat milk soap, which is a record for a non-December month. We're pretty excited about it, since we normally only have business like that during the holiday season.

I also made buttermilk for the first time ever. It will be ready tomorrow, so we shall see how I did! Can't wait to make buttermilk pancakes with my homemade buttermilk.

Today's lunch was so delicious ... goat cheese sandwiches with grilled portobellos and green peppers!

Time to get to bed in case a screaming goat wakes me over the baby monitor tonight.

No new babies today

Margaret finally came to bed last night at 1 a.m. I kept the baby monitor next to my bed all night, but Scandal slept just fine, and there were no new babies this morning.

This morning, she still looked the same, so Margaret and I had to take Hercules to the vet to have his leg checked. Three weeks ago he was delivered to me with a broken leg. He didn't have a broken leg when the transporter picked him up in Texas, but between there and here, he tried to jump a fence, got his leg caught, and he broke his leg. That took the whole morning after chores, because the vet is 50 minutes away. We pass four other vet offices along the way, but not everyone does large animals. It was one of the biggest shocks for me to learn that the vast majority of vets have no desire to see anything other than dogs and cats.

The vet said that Hercules's leg is healing well, but he needs to keep the cast on for two more weeks. The really good news is that his leg is continuing to grow. That had been a concern because the break was really close to a growth plate.

We called home for updates, only to learn that Scandal was still very pregnant. This afternoon, I spent some time sitting with her in the barn, which she seems to really love. Whenever we try to leave her, she has a fit. If we put her outside, she's okay with that, but it was windy today, and we've had bad experiences in the past with goats kidding unattended. Really, everything comes out okay, but when moms have three or more kids, they usually start shooting out really fast after the second one, and the mom doesn't have time to get them cleaned up. They are really wet when they're born, and they can get chilled very quickly. Of course, hypothermia can kill them very quickly. Scandal's labor is stacking up very much like Dancy's labor of 2004 and Sherri's labor of 2005. In both cases, we saw signs of early labor with the goats for two days. In both cases, someone even spent the whole night in the barn with them. In both cases, we got really frustrated after two days, decided we didn't know what we were doing, and we left. In both cases, we came back to find three babies -- two nursing and one covered with mucous and nearly dead. Luckily, in both cases we were able to save the babies. By plunging them into a bucket or sink filled with 100 degree water, and then wrapping them in a heating pad, we were eventually able to get their body temperature back up to normal. The first time, it was really scary. The second time, I was really angry at myself for having to save another baby from near death by hypothermia.

Scandal isn't screaming or doing anything to make me think she is in distress, but the area between her ribs and her hips is hollowed out, which usually doesn't happen unless they're within 24 hours of giving birth. For the past 24 hours, I've continued to think that it won't be much longer ... eventually those babies will be ready to come out, and we can't forget that! I held my hand on her belly this afternoon, and the kids were kicking and wiggling around in there.

This evening, we put up the bucks across the creek in a pen made with temporary electrical fencing, so they can get some of this wonderfully fresh spring grass. Temporary fencing is made to be easily moved so they can have new fresh grass when they eat everything in their current pen.

My ankle is improving slowly. It still hurts a lot, and it has turned all kinds of pretty colors, but it only swells if I've been on my feet for an hour or two. That's an improvement. When I wake up in the morning, it feels good.

It's been a long day. The sun is going down later. We didn't get inside until after 8:00 tonight. I still need some dinner.

More lambs ... and waiting for more kids

A storm woke me at 2 a.m. I thought about all the new lambs in the pasture, hoping their mothers had led them to shelter, hoping they weren't getting soaked and chilled, which would kill them quickly. After the sun rose, Mike went out to the pasture to find all the lambs doing well, and two new ewe lambs! They had been born recently, as the mother had not yet passed her placenta. I'm excited to finally have a little panda-bear-looking ewe! So far, we've always had rams born with the black body and white head, socks and tail. You can tell the little white and black spotted ewe isn't completely dry yet in this photo.

Today we had two families pick up four goats. The first couple picked up two. They are from Iowa and are starting a show herd. The second customer was a widow from Indiana who just wants some pet goats. I wish all my goats could go to a home like hers. She talked about how she's been showing everyone Eve's picture for the past three weeks as she waited to pick her up.


This afternoon, Margaret informed me that Scandal the goat was in labor. She sat with her for about an hour, then I took over while she and Jonathan went to town to see a movie. I took a new novel with me out there, and 179 pages later, we still don't have any new kids. Scandal has clearly been enjoying the company. She untied my shoe laces, sniffed at my book, and spent most of her time just lieing next to me. She is wanting more of the red raspberry leaves, which are supposed to help strengthen the uterus.

Last year, Scandal's birth happened so quickly, I think we're all a little paranoid. Katherine came inside during morning chores to tell me she was in labor, so I went out there and told Katherine to come inside for breakfast. "There's no reason for both of us to be hungry," I said. Only a few minutes after Katherine left, Scandal started giving birth, and I was stuck out there without any clean towels to dry the babies. She effortlessly (seemed that way) pushed four baby goats into the world so quickly! Of course, now I look back and think that we really have no idea how long she was in labor when Katherine spotted her pushing during morning chores. She could have been laboring all night.

I'm not sure what we'll be doing when morning comes if Scandal hasn't given birth yet, because we have to take our little buck to the vet to have the cast removed from his leg. At the moment, Margaret is with Scandal again. When I went to leave shortly after 10 p.m., Scandal -- huge, pregnant Scandal tried to jump out of the stall and follow me! Oh my, did that scare me! So, I called to Margaret over the baby monitor, and she came outside to labor watch. If we didn't have that appointment at 10:20 tomorrow morning, I'd be hoping that she'd just hold out until morning; however, since we do have that appointment, I'm thinking that a middle-of-the-night birth might not be such a bad thing. Unless I hear Margaret calling me over the baby monitor fairly quickly, I'll be sleeping with it next to my bed, so I'll wake up when I hear her bleating. She's such a stoic goat though, I know I won't have a lot of time to get out there from when she makes the first noises, so I also need to have my farm clothes sitting on the chair in my bedroom, ready to be pulled on as soon as I'm awakened. This is the most fun time of year, but also the most difficult.

Cheesemaking

It's raining today. Combine that with my bum ankle, and I'm not doing much outside today. I'm glad I got out yesterday and saw the new lambs. I can't imagine anyone looking at baby animals and not smiling. It always makes me so happy when I see them. We are also expecting Scandal the goat to kid around May 2, so she is getting close. She had quads last year, and she's pretty big again this year, so ... might be quads again. We'll just have to wait and see.

I just had to add another picture of the new lambs! Spotted lambs are so cute! You don't really breed for color with goats because their main purpose is dairy, but with the sheep, you're breeding for wool, so I can indulge my desire for beautiful colors and spots!

Today I put my soft goat cheese into the molds to drain. Last night, the milk was mixed with the culture and sat overnight to separate into curds and whey. With only a gallon of Nigerian dwarf milk, I can fill up eight of the chevre molds, which equals about two pounds of cheese. A gallon of standard goat milk only fills up four, because their butterfat is about half what the Nigerian milk is. I did four molds with plain cheese, two with dill and garlic, and two with fresh basil that I had chopped up in the food processor. Then the molds sit on a cookie rack on top of a baking pan, which collects the whey as it drips out of the molds. You can't see it in the picture, but the plastic cups actually have holes in them where the whey drains out. Really, we could eat it at any time now, but we will definitely be eating it tonight! If you take it out of the molds before it's done draining, you just wind up with whey on the plate as it continues to drain. But we're all so starved for goat cheese after several months without it that we don't care!