Good Plants and Bad Animals

I got to spend a little time with some of my favorite wild and winged animals last weekend.  We caught this tiny small footed bat (Myotis leibii) in our nets.  He's one of the tiniest kinds of bats we have here in Kentucky.  He weighs a little more than a dime, but less than a nickle!  Small footed bats have black ears and muzzle, so they look like teeny bandits.  I'm a little worried about this bat survey season.  I was only sleep deprived for two nights, and it took me days to recover.  I think my early to rise homestead life is going to make being a late night bat biologist even harder.    

Bats aren't the only tiny mammals in my life right now.  Voles dig tunnels in my greenhouse.  Moles excavate my yard.  Mice occupy my barn, like this friendly little guy in the picture, and sometimes they invade my house!  We keep traps set in the pantry and under the sink and sometimes late at night, when it's quite, I hear SNAP! and I rejoice.  Poor mice.  

My littlest farm mammal, the baby goat, is a sweet little goat.  She likes to have her shoulders scratched, and she's learned from the River brothers to jump up and put her dirty feet on me so I can give her a good massage.  

Look at all those tomato seedlings!  I wasn't sure my old see was still viable, but it looks like this kind was just fine.  I planted several salad boxes with different types seed that I have collected over the years and some of them came up thin and scraggly but other are strong little plants.  Some of the seed was saved by squirting the pulp from a tomato onto a paper towel.  I just placed the paper towel on top of the soil, sprinkled some dirt on top, and watered it.  They sprouted just fine!  

Even though the voles occasionally dig up my seedlings, I've managed to keep several different plants alive.  Lots of tomatoes and dill, some herbs and brussel sprouts.  I even planted a handful of bean seeds, and they all germinated.  The weather has been abnormally cold, so things are growing slowly.  

The cold weather hasn't slowed down the lettuce or radishes.  Even the kale and the peas are doing their thing.  I'm doing my best to keep up with the weeds, and pull them when they are tiny plants.  I've been making daily lettuce harvests, and waiting for the slugs to arrive. Yesterday I found the first two.  Let the battle begin!  

Have you even eaten radish greens?  They're not bad.  And, they grow so fast and so early, it's an easy green crop to grow.  We aren't huge radish fans, despite my poetry, but the plants just keep making more leaves!

Pretty lettuce.  I almost hate to pick it.  Almost.

The vet did a farm visit on a rainy day.  I was nervous to have someone who knows about animals see my set up, but the animals and I had a few days to prepare.  We practiced wearing our halters and walking on a lead rope.  Hattie was to have her watery eyes looked at, Little Buck needed a wormer injection, and the baby goat, Noobi, need her last vaccine.  I asked everyone to be on their best behavior, and no one listened.  

I tied Hattie to a post before the vet arrived, and she proceeded to dig a mud hole and splash muddy water all over herself and Rufus. The goats practically attacked the vet and mauled his box of supplies hoping it was treats.  He had muddy goat prints all over his clothes.  I was holding Noobi for her injection and Peaches pushed me over and the needle popped out and squirted the vaccine into the air.  Wendigo grabbed a little box with a vial of donkey tranquilizer and tried to run with it.  I grabbed her by the hair and she yelped and rolled on her back.  Ack!  

In the end, the goats got their injections, and we found that Hatti doesn't seem to have any tear ducts.  This explains why tears run down her face, which attracts flies, and then she looses her hair when she scratches the fly bites.  I'm to apply Vaseline every day so her skin doesn't stay soggy and hopefully that will allow the hair to grow back.  I had hoped her problem was fixable, but at least now I know.  She just has leaky eyes.      

Goats on the Brain

It's becoming obvious to others that I have goats on the brain.  I can't help it, my preoccupation with these goats is leaking into my everyday conversations.  I may be getting the crazy goat lady reputation.  Do only crazy people keep goats, or does keeping goats drive a person crazy?  

Peaches and the baby are doing really great.  The baby is growing fast and she feels sturdy and well padded.  She's energetic and literally bounces off the walls.  

Peaches is strong and agile and looks good with her new full figure.  The River brothers are mischievous and very robust.  Little Buck, though, is still awful scrawny.  Peaches knocked him to the ground, and he didn't get back up for a long time.  I thought he was having a seizure.  

He had a trip to the vet, who agreed that he is small for his age and doesn't have the muscle tone that he should or an ounce of extra body fat.  He was tested for the dreaded goat wasting disease, CAE, which he doesn't have (whew!), but his stool sample showed a high number of worm eggs.  Does he have too many worms because he is sick, or are the worms making him sick?  Who knows.  

He's to get a series of injections for the worms, and I'm to continue with the herbal wormer that is working well with the other goats.  If it isn't the worms causing his problems, then it's likely something metabolic, like kidney or liver problems.  I'm to focus on good nutrition and low stress. 

Nothing makes a goat person feel better than fresh made cookies, right?  Unfortunately these aren't chocolate brownie bites with powdered sugar.  These are no-bake goat cookies made with herbal wormer (wormwood, black walnut, garlic, fennel, and stevia) mixed with oat flour and maple syrup.  Each little cookie is a half dose, so I can feed everyone a couple of cookies and know for sure they got their dose.  In the past I would sprinkle the powdered herbs on their food, but maybe poor Little Buck doesn't always get his share since he eats slow and Peaches eats fast and is greedy.  

Everyone loves the cookies, especially the donkeys, who press their muzzles to the fence in anticipation.  Mmmm... gimme garlic cookies!

It took a few days to get the goats used to the sprouted wheat fodder that I've been growing in the kitchen, but now that they've tried it, they gobble it up.  Little Buck especially likes it, so I'm glad to find something he will eat.  The roots form a mat in the tray, so I used a knife to cut it into squares.  The donkeys munch huge bites, but the chickens peck each little seed.  

A tray of goat cookies and a bucket of fodder.  It's no wonder I have goats on the brain - I'm in the kitchen prepping food for the goats more often than I am for myself!  

Pear Blossoms, Milk, and Fodder

Look, Wendigo, the dandelions are blooming! 

The wind has been intense.  The chickens look funny when their tails blow inside out.  Sometimes they get blown off course and they stumble in the wind.  It hasn't stopped them from roaming the farm searching for tasty bits in the grass.  I'm glad they are finding plenty to eat and getting lots of exercise so they can keep making all those beautiful eggs!     

The old pear tree in the front yard is spectacular right now.  Big boughs of white flowers, and tiny white petals that rain down and flutter in the breeze.  If the weekend wasn't going to be so frigid, it would be the perfect time for a cookout under the blooms.  

I predict the pear harvest will be a small one this year, despite the numerous blossoms.  The weather has not been conducive to pollinating insects.  The wind is so strong and the temperatures are so low that I haven't seen the swarms of bees and flies that are normally attracted to the pear blossoms.  The predicted freeze may finish off the flowers before the bees get to do their job.   

Even with the cold, the plants are waking up.  The grass is green and getting shaggy.  Brandon is gearing up for mowing.  The tractor wheel rim was successfully replaced.  I heard lots of grunts and expletives coming form the the workshop while Brandon tugged and pounded the rubber tire onto the new rim.  It was a sweaty battle, but he emerged victorious.   

Peaches and I have made great progress with our milking routine.  She hears me filling the food bowl on the milk stand, so she is waiting by the gate.  I open the gate and she walks right out, around the side of the crib, over the hay pile and tarp, into the crib, and leaps onto the milk stand.  She even puts her head in the right place so I can lock her in.  The last time I milked, she never once kicked her feet, and I got a good rhythm with the squeezing.  She gave less than half a cup and then the teats were dry.   I massage the udder and bump it like the baby does, and I can get a few more squirts from each teat.  She is still patiently eating, and my hands aren't tired yet, but there's no more milk.  

I think I understand why folks lock the babies away from the mother during the night and milk before the baby gets breakfast.  A measly half cup of milk hardly seems worth the trouble of making dirty dishes and laundry twice a day.  Of course, I may think that because I currently get a gallon of raw cows milk from my cow share.  Months ago I bought a "share" of a dairy cow that lives in my neck of the woods.  For the cost of my share, which was forty dollars, plus thirty-five dollars a month, I get a gallon of unpasturized milk every week, which I pick up from the refrigerator in Joe's garage.  It's sealed in a regular milk jug, with a pretty label, just like the milk from the store, only it is the most amazing creamy milk you can imagine.  The cream floats on the top, and sometimes as much as a third of the gallon is cream.  I tell myself I'm going to make butter and cheese, but it's so delicious we usually just drink it up.  We have to drink it pretty fast, or it spoils quickly.  The chickens usually get a share too, since we have a hard time drinking a whole gallon every week.  

Yesterday evening I was in the greenhouse when I thought "I should pick some lettuce for dinner.  No, I need to milk the goat.  But, I don't want to milk the goat!"  Uh oh.  

This is my fodder growing set up.  It's wheat seeds, which I have been soaking, then watering, so they will sprout.  Sprouted seeds have more nutrition than un-sprouted.  A fifty pound bag of seeds was only seven dollars, and could result in nearly three hundred pounds of fodder!  

In this photo you can see the tiny white roots that start to sprout after a few days of watering.  Each tray has some holes poked in the bottom so the rinse water drains off and they don't get moldy.

These seeds have been getting watered three times a day for six days.  They still have a few days to go before they are ready to be fed to the animals.  My idea was to feed Peaches the sprouted seeds while she gets milked, plus I can give it to everyone else to supplement the hay.  Even the chickens can eat it.  I've been starting a new tray every morning.  Eventually I will have a tray to feed and new tray every day.  I think it's working!  

Goat Milk Euphoria!

Three cheers for goat milk!  You wouldn't believe how hard Peaches and I have worked for this skimpy half cup of milk.  Someone's helpful advise was to plan on getting to drink zero milk during the first week of learning to milk.  She said during that week I would be so frustrated I would question my life choices!  Ha! 

The first time I tried to milk Peaches I got about a tablespoon of milk in my bucket, but I also got a dirty goat foot.  Peaches probably got sore teats.  The second time I tried, I managed to squeeze more than a tablespoon out, but didn't catch most of it in my bucket.  It's hard to aim those things!  

It's not funny, Rufus!  By our third try, I was happy to get the half cup and no goat feet.  Whew!  Peaches and I were both pleased with our progress.  

Considering what I'm doing to her, Peaches has been very patient as she teaches me.  I've learned that I can sit on her right side, but not her left.  I can maneuver her right hind leg, but I'm not to touch the left.  I'm permitted to wash, dry, and squeeze her as long as she has something tasty to eat, but if she runs out of food or isn't hungry, she loses her patience and kicks her feet and blocks me.  It's best if I don't pull her hair.  I see now why people shave the udder.  

This morning, which would be milking session number five, I barely got a half cup because Peaches wasn't hungry and would not hold still.  She didn't even want to get on the milk stand.  Her belly was still sticking straight out on both sides from gorging herself twice, the day before, plus eating a whole basket of hay.  I've been filling the food dish on the milk stand with alfalfa pellets, beet root pellets, and sunflower seeds, and then mixing in a hand full of dried sea kelp and a small scoop of probiotic powder.   When she is hungry, she snuffles up the food as fast as a vacuum, so I've probably over fed her to give myself more time milking.  

I think as I get faster, and as Peaches body recognizes the need for more milk production, I will be able to get more than a half cup at a time.

There's a lot of satisfaction with that half cup of goat milk, even if there aren't many calories.

The first time I walked back to the kitchen with clean milk in my bucket, I stopped for a moment just to savor the moment.  I looked around at the blue sky and green grass, and listened to the birds in the air and the chickens on the ground and I thought - I'm doing it.  I'm raising animals and plants for my food, and it's fun, and it's clean, and it's spring!  Goat milk induced euphoria.

It's not gross, Rufus!  I filtered my meager milk serving, and tried to talk myself into drinking it.  Go ahead, Rain, drink some fluid you squeezed from a goat.  Do it!  I finally poured it into a crystal glass.  Everything looks appetizing when it's served in a fancy glass.  The very first taste had a goat milk flavor that is different than cow milk. It was very faint, and I couldn't even detect the flavor on the second or third drink.  The second time I got enough milk to drink, I chilled it first and shared it with Brandon.  There was no goat milk flavor once it was chilled, and Brandon said it tastes just like milk to him.  After a few minutes he said it might have a different after-flavor than cow milk.