Can you take vacations?

When you have animals, especially dairy ones, you have to make a commitment to provide them with care nearly 24/7.   You  can’t skip milking times because you don’t feel like it, or you would rather hit the beach instead.

Folks often ask if modern day homesteaders are able to take vacations and the answer is a qualified “yes”.   You can take vacations IF you have someone reliable to take care of your critters.  The difficult part is finding that person.    If you are friendly with your neighbors they might be willing to trade “critter sitting” with you so they can also get some time off.

We are blessed to be able to swap “critter sitting” wtih the lady we bought our little herd of goats from.   We also try to time the breeding schedule so that birthing isn’t expected within a month of our trips.

Goats & Christmas Trees

I wrote previoulsy about recieving a large number of left over Christmas trees to feed to my goats.  They are making steady progress on demolishing the pile of trees, and after I dragged a new one into the pasture this morning I thought to take some before and after pictures.

Remember these are Nigerian Dwarf goats that stand less than 2 feet tall at the shoulder, so just imagine how much more quickly a larger goat could get the “recycling” done!

Before.... (with some after's in the background)

After - it took the boys two days to strip this smaller tree

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You don’t have to have a PhD to milk a goat!

A few weeks ago my sister came to visit during winter break from her PhD studies in Indiana.  She offered to watch the kids over night for us, so that hubby and I could get away by ourselves for the first time since the kids came along.

The one catch was it involved her doing chores, and that included milking Allie.   A very patient experienced milking Nigerian Dwarf goat.  Janet’s first attempts at milking Allie resulted in some milk coming out, but I don’t think anything made it into the quart sized Pyrex measuring cup I usually use for milking.   Allie finally had enough of all the nonsense and stepped into the milk.

Fearing our overnight excursion might be in jeopardy, I finally took my dad up on his offer to milk since he frequently brags about how he used to milk some 50 years ago.   He came over with my sister to learn the routine, and things did not go well.  My sister turned out to be the better milker.  I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time, and I so wish I would have had a video camera to record the three ring circus as they both tried to figure it out.

My sister did finally get the hang of it, and proudly showed off her newly acquired skill at least once more before she returned to the university.

So tonight, after putting up with my sister’s bragging my hubby finally agreed to have a go at learning how to milk.    Maybe its a guy thing, but he didn’t have any more luck at it than my dad.  Nigerian Dwarf goats are small, and there isn’t much “equipment” to work with when you are trying to milk them, so I’m guessing the larger mens hand may be part of the problem.

Ah well, at least he tried and I will keep trying to teach him how, in the words our four year old daughter, to be a “real farm boy”.

Silly Heifer

As I mentioned previously I was given a couple dozen left over christmas trees to feed to the goats.  My Dexter’s also like eating browse occasionally and have trimmed all of the trees in the pasture to a very even height.

So this morning I decided to give them a tree to munch on and threw a smaller christmas tree over the fence into the pasture.  As soon as I did Maggie went nuts and attacked it.  At first I thought she was just trying to get a bite, but then she got it up on her horns and started tossing it around like a bucking bull tosses a barrel at the rodeo.

Meanwhile Matilda was standing at the fence looking for treats and occasionally glancing Maggie’s way with a look that clearly said “We aren’t really that closely related, she is only my HALF sister!”   I have no idea why Maggie was so riled up by that tree, but it sure was funny to watch!

Happy New Year

The new year is being ushered in by flood watches and high wind warnings here.  Gusts are expected in the 50-60 mph range, which means they will probably be higher on our ridge top.

The lower pasture has been showing signs of flooding for several days now,and the cows have mostly been staying up in the corral or on other high ground.  We did have a bit of a lull in the weather yesterday afternoon and the cows ventured to the low lands to check out the small ponds that have formed and to look for any new graze that might have sprung up.

We here at Wags Ranch are wishing everyone a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year!

Rain, rain and more rain…

I hate doing chores in the rain more than the cold, especially when it is raining sideways!  I think the animals, especially the goats, hate it more too since they are fed outside and have to stand in the rain to eat.  Goats do not like getting wet!

My goats love to eat our fir trees, in fact we have had to wrap chicken wire around all of the tree’s in their pasture to keep them from completely girdling them.    So my plan on Christmas day was to take the pick-up and collect a few of the free left over Christmas trees.   But the truck wouldn’t start.

So the following day I decided I could at least fit some branches or a small tree in the back of the van and drove into town to see if there were any free trees left.   I drove by the Teen Challenge lot just as they were starting to tear it down.  I asked for branches, which they gladly gave me and in the course of the conversation, I persuaded them to deliver the entire lot of left over trees to my house.  So now I have several dozen Christmas trees piled up by the goat pastures.    The goats seem to be enjoying the new found bounty, and the larger trees will be cut up to fire wood to donate after the goats strip them.   (We don’t have a fireplace or wood stove.)   Certainly a better use than just out right burning the lot of them!

Maggie & Matilda don’t seem to like the rain all that much either and have holed up in their shelter for a good portion of each day.   Unfortunately the wind has blown the haystack tarp a bit and rain got into a corner of the haystack and several bales are moldy and completely ruined.  I’m not sure yet of the extent of the damage, and with the high winds we are having untarping and retarping isn’t an option until the winds die down.

I’m going to have to start regularly supplementing their feed with alfalfa pellets, an expense that wasn’t in the budget!  Ah well, that is the life of a “rancher” there are always unexpected expenses and unexpected joys too!

More winter weather

We had a bit more snow yesterday, but it didn’t last long. I did manage to get out and take a few pictures during chore time.

Mattilda - the one that hopefully is due in July

Hawthorne Berries

Farm across the road

The boys having a little extra breakfast

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Still Freezing!

Yesterday the temperature never got over 30 despite being sunny all day.  Today it is slightly cloudy and warmer, although if you look at the wind chill factor it is actually colder today.    Snow mixed with rain or freezing rain is in the forecast for our area through Sunday so I don’t expect it will be getting any better for awhile.

I couldn’t break the the ice on the cows water troughs this morning so I had to haul hot water from the house to soften up the ice enough so I could break it up and toss the chunks out of there.  The ice was 4-6″ thick on their troughs and on the goats smaller troughs as well.

In all I hauled almost 80 gallons of hot water and another 20 of cold water.    I know a stock tank heater would elimante the need for hauling, but we so seldom get weather like this that I hate to spend the money on them.

Snow!

We had a light dusting of snow overnight. A pretty rare occurrence in our usually mild climate. It was a first for many of the animals on the “ranch”, and I don’t think any of them appreciated it one bit!

At 9am it was still only 24 degrees, so I had to haul hot water from the house to help soften up the ice on the water troughs enough to break it up.

Here are a few pictures from this morning.

Sunshine - our herd sire

Mame - our blue eyed girl.

Millie & Sunshine

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I survived the rodeo

First of all, yes I know I should have planned things a little better when I tried to loosen the heifers halters, especially Maggies.   I guess I was lured into a false sense of ease with Matilda because she was so easy.  At any rate Maggies halter was off and I needed to get it back on.

Maggie tolerates my presence because I bring her food and treats.   She is not what one would ever call a friendly cow.   So why do I keep her?  Mostly as a companion to Matilda and because I am hoping I can yet change her attitude and even more importantly that she will eventually give me a heifer calf.

Moving on to this mornings rodeo.   I brought them alfalfa pellets as a bribe and distraction and managed to get a rope around Maggie’s neck without too much trouble.  Then the real fun began.  To get a halter on her I have to get up close and personal with those horns of hers.  And she does like to use them!

She wasn’t purposefully trying to hurt me, but she sure didn’t want that halter back on.   We had a bit of a shoving match and at one point I had her on her knees, but eventaully I was able to wrestle the halter back on her and get it buckled.  It does fit much better, but as soon as I can afford it I will be ordering custom Dexter halters from Thomas’ Dexters.