Rabbit Update

We did not get any babies. Stef accidentally caved in some of their burrow and we think they died. Anyway, we are trying again. We put one male in the colony and 2 females in a cage to mate with the other two males in cages. Well, the boys were definitely ready for some nookie, but the girls absolutely refused. They laid flat then stood straight up so the boys couldn't get to them. I tried to hold the girls so the boys could get it done but we just couldn't get it right. Not sure what to do with them now.

MILK

I have started separating the babies from the mommas at night so we get more milk in the morning. Holly gives me a quart in the morning and maybe half that in the evening (depends on if Rocky eats before I milk or not). Frosty's teat is messed up again. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her.

Interesting bug

Niko found this bug yesterday. It was very strange looking. It had back legs like a cricket, front claws like a crawdad, wings like a flying insect, and was segmented kind of like a scorpion. I was so mad my camera wouldn't focus better.

Bigger pups

Here are the puppies again. They are a little over 2 weeks old now and most have their eyes open though they are all squinty.

Lala has moved them 3 times between the kidding pens. I think she has finally settled on a place now. She is in the kidding pen and has dug out a cave under the stored hay bales on the other side of the pen. In the heat of the day they can stay nice and cool in there. Although, they are usually scattered all around the pen. It looks like a puppy masacre. I still make sure everyone is breathing when I go to check on them.


We still haven't decided on how many we are going to keep.

Boys will be boys

It has come time to separate the little goat boys from the goat girls. Sadly, they are both humping everything in sight. It is going to be sad for poor Tipsy. She will be separated from her buddies, although if she were to stay with them she would certainly develop back problems!


So I am off this morning to build yet another fence to keep the boys in. I am going to put it sharing a side with the big boys so they can get to know each other some before the babies have to move in with the big boys.

They are eating some grain and greens, but I will still have to take them to their mom's twice a day to nurse for a while. What a pain!

BTW, I don't know what's up with my camera. All the pics are fuzzy.

Soap Success!!

My Laundry detergent works! And so does the vinegar rinse. I dry the clothes on the line outside and if I get them off the line quickly after they dry they are nice and soft. If they aren't quite dry and I leave them out overnight they are pretty dry and scratchy in the morning. Well, yesterday, it kept sprinkling on the clothes so I waited to take them off this morning. They weren't that bad. I think the vinegar kept them soft? I don't know, it's pretty cool though.

Homemade Soaps

I am going to try some homemade laundry detergent tomorrow. I am really trying to get away from chemicals in the house and have come up with some recipes for a few things around the house. We already buy special soaps from the Cal-Ben soap company that are supposed to be good for the environment, but they are a bit more expensive than homemade.

The Laundry soap will be:

1 cup grated bar soap
1/2 cup washing soda (not the exact same as baking soda)
1/2 cup borax


I am supposed to be able to use only 2 Tablespoon of this per load. I have heard this may build up in the water and drain hoses, but I am going to use white vinegar for fabric softener and hope this will help keep the build-up down.

Also, for dishwashing detergent I'm going to try equal parts borax and washing soda.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Grandma's Poem

I was looking through old emails and found this from my grandma. It made me smile so I want to share it. I didn't ask her permission to post it... but I guess since she sent it to me, it is my property now!!



Easter
my
favorite

best time of the year for good times and fond memories.

my kitchen table full of egg dye ,vinger,cups and bowels of hot water.

each and every one of you had your own way of handeling the product.

with your empty baskets you all hunted for eggs in the yard, in the house or where ever you were. At one time or the other we went shoe shopping and also for new dresses,pants and shirts.

I laid out patterns for many a new coat.

Sue,Claudine ,Jim: do you remember the year thar Mrs. Minink's cow got out and found the candy eggs.

To nite I am ,as you may have guess , scrolling thur the years .

It helps me to count my many blessings.

When I go to church tears come because god has bless me .

I hope you do not find this a silly email, but my heart,tonite is full

Happy Easter

much love
silly old lady up north

Puppies

There are 10, not 11. 6 boys and 4 girls. Stef was so happy today. Said this is the first time he was really excited with the homesteading stuff. He has always wanted a whole gang of big, rough Great Pyrenees. He also says he wants to keep 4 or 5 of them! I don't know about that. We have quite a few weeks before we have to decide.

Puppies!

Lala had puppies sometime in the night! I think there are 11 of them!

I have no words...

I don't even know what to title this entry..... I went in to the barn to milk tonight and there was chaos. Now, everyone had only come in from pasture a few minutes so it is not like they had time to get bored and get in trouble.... They just all lost their minds!

My first sign that something was amiss was a large crash before I even got to the barn. I walk in and see J.D. eating all of the alfalfa pellets out of the feeder. (No wonder I've had to fill it up several times today.) Then I look over and see that Little Bit has jumped over a divider wall into the emergency kidding pen and is attempting to headbutt her way out of the barn, hence the crashing noise. Ama hears this and begins barking at Little Bit. All of the sudden the 4 foot by 2 foot plywood box creeper jumps off the ground. What the hell?? OMG, Holly somehow got herself into the creeper and is now stuck. All the while, Frosty is trying to break into the milk room.

Lala, Big Mama and the kids are the only sane animals we have. While I was lifting the creeper up so Holly could get out and she was STILL trying to get out the tiny doggy door hole, I kept thinking and saying out loud how can I possibly have this many STUPID animals in one spot together?

OH LORD.

Rockin' Rabbit Pictures

Playscape

The goats decided yesterday that the chicken tractor made an excellent jungle gym. We, on the other hand, disagreed. So Niko made them a play scape.
We are going to hang a tire swing for them soon also.

Indiana Jones

Maybe it is because I am a girl, but I believe Indiana Jones is over rated. I am only saying this because I am relatively sure Harrison Ford will not be reading my blog, because I like him. The first one was okay. The second movie, Temple of Doom was just silly. It didn't make sense to me, I just didn't get it. We will be watching the third movie today, hope it gets better.

Barn Pics

For Mother's Day I made everyone work on the barn with me. I know, not so fun, but I did promise them an Indiana Jones marathon after we finished.

We now have 2 permanent kidding pens and one emergency kidding pen in the barn. We also have a milking station and a creeper for the kids, and an alfalfa pellet trough.

Here is a picture of the milk room.



Here is a picture of Frosty eating out of the alfalfa trough. Behind her you can see the creeper. The trough is made out of PVC pipe cut in half and mounted on the wall.

A creeper is a space the babies can go and the adults can't. I will put some medicated food in there for them. We need to make the entrance smaller because Little Bit can get in on her knees right now.


Here is a look at the kidding pens.


Here is a view of the barn from the goat pen with a very handsome man in the middle of it.


All we really have left is a hay rack and a shelf for the grain for the goats while they are on the milk stand.

Garden and barn pics

I'm going to harvest some peas today and I have lots of tomatoes working. The zucchini started flowering today. I know it looks really weedy, especially around the corn. I was sick of fighting that battle and I'm gonna see how it works with the weeds.

Found my Camera!

I was on my way to buy a camera off someone from Craigslist and all of the sudden it I had an epiphany and reached under my seat and TADA!! First, here are some pictures of Rocky, Holly's big boy.


Holly is a bit of a neurotic mom and unfortunately, I think it is wearing off on Rocky. He is pretty skittish around us right now so we need to spend more one on one time with him. The problem is Holly won't let him out of her sight. Even if we are holding him right in front of her she wanders around hollering like she can't find him until we put him on the ground. On the up side her udder is huge and she is a fantastic milker!

Here are pictures of Tipsy and Alvin. They are sleeping in their food bowl. In this pic you can see the disbudding holes in their heads. Their hair will start growing back over them soon.

Holly Update

Holly is feeding Rocky now. I'm still concerned about her not drinking. Her water was dumped over this morning so I don't know if she drank any of it. Niko said he saw her take a little drink this morning, so I'm not sure how much she is getting. She is eating fine though.

I so wish I had my camera! Rocky is so big. He is bigger than week old Alvin and he is so sweet! He looks a lot like Tipsy, white with black spots. Wish you could all see him, he is such a cutie.

Bad Mommy, Huge Udder

Well, Holly finally had a very large buckling. Yes, I know, more stinky boys, just what I need. He is about the size of Frosty's week old buckling. I was hoping another would pop out but only the one. Holly's udder is humongous and nice and soft. She will give us lots of milk! She, however, refuses to let the kid anywhere near her teats. Stef has to hold her while I hold him up to nurse. Oh boy here we go again.

My camera has gone MIA. Can't find it anywhere. I'm starting to think I left it in the car with the doors unlocked. It is driving me crazy without the camera.

Found

We found the escaped male rabbit. He was just hanging out behind the barn.

Rabbit Update

The rabbits should have been due around the first of May. Because we raise them in a colony and they have a burrow we will not know if they had any kits until they pop their fuzzy heads up in about 2 weeks. I have read that after rabbits have the babies they will close up the burrow. I don't know how they get fed or breath or anything else, this is just what I've been told by other colony raisers. After the big storm Sunday night the entrance to their burrow was closed up and now I'm not sure whether it was the stormwaters or the rabbits that did it. I think it was the rabbits, I think if it was the storm they would be trying to redig it. Guess we will find out in a week or two.

Also we have a missing male. Somehow he got his cage door open and jumped 4 feet to his escape. I hope we will see him around soon. Everyone was worried about the bunnies in the colony and we lose the one in a cage!

Goat Update

It has been awhile since I have updated on here. I was so tired after the babies I felt I was the one who just had twins! Frosty is doing better. I went to the vet for some antibiotics for her which helped a lot the first day. Her teat is soft now, but she still has a 3 inch band on her udder that is very hard. She is letting Tipsy and Alvin nurse of that side now. I will give it a few more days.

I had my first experience with milking last week and so did Frosty. The first few days I literally wrestled Frosty onto the milk stand. The first day I thought I broke my hand. On day five the heavens opened up and a miracle happened.......She jumped up on her own!! She still jumps and kicks and acts like a fool when I try to milk the infected side, but we are working on it.

The kids are doing great. Alvin is such a sweetheart. Tipsy is a bit more standoffish. HMMM... makes me think of another set of twins I know. They are starting to run around and play and eat grass. We disbudded them yesterday. We do not want them to have horns for several reasons. They will constantly be getting stuck in fences. Also they can be dangerous to people and other goats even if no harm was meant. Basically we burned two holes in their heads down to their skulls. I know it sounds awful, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. A fellow goat keeper I met on Dairygoatinfo.com, Fran, came out to show us how it was done. Poor babies. If I can ever find my camera I will post pics.

I also have a video of Alvin being born and them running around in the pasture. Stef has to help me get those of his video camera and on here though.

Finally, I believe Holly is finally going to have her kid(s) any day. Now I know I've been saying this for over a month now, but I really feel it this time. Her udder is getting huge and she looks skinnier, like the kid(s) have moved into the birth canal. Also, I think she finally lost her ligaments today. Shouldn't be much longer.