Care for a buck anyone?

  I missed some days of posting. I really suck at sticking to things everyday between all the stuff here at the house, all the animals and all my children not even mentioning my dear Hubs who deserves way more of my time than he actually gets. Plus I'm sometimes a bit of an air head. I forget what things I wanted to do unless I put them on my dry erase board. Blogging hasn't quite made it to the dry erase board since its mostly for me, its not really a chore. Its an inbetween thing plus America's Got Talent was on and they need my votes, hellooooo. Today, I'm going to introduce the rest of my herd. They're mostly, you probably guessed from the post title, bucks. 

   I've heard a lot of things against bucks: they stink, they make your milk nasty, they are aggressive, they stink, the pee in their mouth and drink it, during rut they really stink, accidental pregnancies and of course they stink. Stink seems to be the number one concern with bucks. Currently mine don't stink since they're young and haven't gone into a rut yet. They are also further away from the house. If they start bothering neighbors with their smell we can move them even further back, its the nice thing about having lots of property and growing a little at a time. As for aggressiveness I've heard very conflicting information. Some people have said that bucks tend to ram you more than females others have said that they're sweeter and want more attention. I think it really matters how they're raised. Our Boar buck, Nebuchadnezzar, is about 4 months old now and he has a sweet shy disposition, the girls boss him around. He is skittish even around us now we know this might change during rut. Daniel, our little Alpine/Nubian mix is the sweetest snugliest goat in the world and it probably has something to do with me bottle feeding him. He follows me around and loves me, Hubs not so much. The first time I see a buck pee in their mouth I will probably throw up a little, there is no getting around how gross that is. Accidental pregnancies are also really easy for me to avoid since our boyos will have their own pasture. Problem solved. 

   Now for intros, this handsome fellow is Nebuchadnezzar but since it is such a mouth full to say we normally just call him Neb or Nebber. He is a 100% Boar goat and a full red color which is apparently desirable? I'm not really sure about what people are looking for in the show circuits because that's not what I'm interested in at this time. He isn't registered because again right now that's just not something Hubs and I are worried about. Neb is our only non dairy goat. Boar goats are traditionally meat goats. I hear you all our there screaming no! How could you eat such a sweet little baby.Well, to be honest, I'm still not completely sure I could eat a goat I know and am friends with. They are so sweet and personable. Hubs is holding out hope so we'll just have to see. Even if I can't do it though people pay a decent amount of money for 50% Boar babies for fair and 4h projects which would be fine with me. Plus we're thinking about offering a stud service. 

   Do you see the ball of adorableness? No, not my daughter! The little week old baby goat we brought home. I was hoping Esther would let him nurse and then Hannah would have a play mate since they're only 4 days apart. Yeah, Esther would have no part in any of that. Even hobbling her legs she still tried to crush this innocent little bundle of love. His name is Daniel, I call  him Danny and sing him Danny Boy. He has some of the most beautiful coloring I have ever seen. For some reason I don't have a decent picture of him but I do have video ;) No perfect pedigree for this little buckling, he is 50% Alpine and 50% Nubian. Right now he is my favorite. Shhh, don't tell anyone. 

  True to my somewhat flighty nature, this post is not only about bucks. I have one doe to sneak in to today's post. Back when we had just gotten Ruth I had tried to buy a pregnant goat off of craigslist (for and amazing price). Unfortunately, before we could set up a pick up date the goat had her baby. The lady said wait two months and email her again to remind her we wanted this goat and see if we were interested in the baby. I'm so bad at remembering but I have siri on my phone. Siri is good at remembering, even months later. I sent the email but since we had already gotten Neb and Danny we weren't really interested in another buckling so we turned him down and picked up Jezebel. She is a naturally polled goat, which means she doesn't have horns and she was born that way. What's really amazing about her is if I hold her she will let Daniel nurse no more formula for my boy! Breast is best and all that. 

The gory side of goats.... kids!

   Now in the last post I mentioned that Esther was pregnant and due in August. Naturally she gave birth on July 26th. I'm thinking that the previous owners didn't really keep track of their breeding appropriately. I write everything down in my planner, I also write them down on my animal binder and put a reminder on my cell phone. Family teases me saying that I have OCD, well surprise I am actually diagnosed with OCD so that's not as funny as everyone seems to thing it is. I just like things to be organized and I like to be able to plan ahead for the health of my animals. There is nothing obsessive about that. It's just good animal management. Luckily because of my OCD I do check my animals constantly through out the day, almost obsessively so and its really bad when they are pregnant. I do constant pooch checks, belly checks for kicks as well as udder checks to see how well everything is filling out. 

   Remember, I am not a professional nor have I ever done any sort of veterinary classes. I'm just a lady who has google and a library card and really likes to research things. I've read a lot on goat births but since I've never actually seen any birth (other than birthing my own children) in person I don't consider myself an expert. A few days before the blessed event (I think about 4) there was a stringy white goo coming from her vagina. It was maybe a little yellowish colored but more like egg yolk. I am sorry if this grosses anyone out I'm just trying to provide information for the curious. I wish now that I had taken pictures because her pooch was certainly swollen and her anus was lowered towards it. There were no tail ligaments at all that I could feel so even though I had been told her due date was August I was pretty sure things would be happening sooner. The morning of the 26th there was a bit of rust colored discharge. It didn't look like blood, it was too brown in color. Everything online told me that it was most likely a rupture of the amniotic sac or losing the mucous plug. I told Hubs that I thought today would be baby goat day and he just rolled his eyes at me and went to work, nerd. Of course, that meant that I had to quadruple the amount of times I checked on her. I think I was checking about every 10-15 minutes. 

   I went up dutifully not expecting to see anything but as soon as I got there she had a contraction. With that contraction out popped a tiny nose and two little hooves. Of course, I had forgotten my phone this time so I started screaming to get my kids' attention. All my kiddos came running. My biggest boy brought my cell phone but they all obediently waited outside the goat yard hoping to catch a glimpse of the new baby. Esther was not a first time mother and she went into the goat shack to have her baby while I sat in the door way to keep our other curious goats out of the way but still be close enough to help if she needed it. I grabbed some 7% iodine since that's what all the goat books say to use, scissors, alcohol wipes and water so I had the basic medical supplies for goat delivery. By the time I got back, the little goat's head was sticking out. I quickly cleared some of the goop away from her nose and mouth. Next contraction, Esther pushed her out and I gently guided the baby to the ground. It was pretty much a perfect delivery. 

   Honestly, Esther did just about everything by the book. I was so thrilled that she had a little girl. We had our fingers crossed for a doe. This is Hannah. It took a couple days for us to decide on a name. 

Then I couldn't tell if there was another baby in there. Her last time having babies, she delivered twins. In the goat world twins are more common than singles. So being a panicky new goat mom I did the only thing I could think of. I called the people we bought Abigail from. I figured they had two goats this year that had twins. They'd know how to tell. I probably sounded like some sort of psycho. First questions she asked me was Esther having any contractions still? Well yes of course she was but she hadn't expelled a placenta before and even human people still have contractions until the placenta is out. Then she suggested I 'bounce' momma goat's belly. You gently hook your hands under her belly and lightly bounce. I didn't feel anything. We assumed there wasn't another until something else started coming out. I didn't know what it was so I sent her pictures.

   What the heck was that hanging out of her backside? Was she prolapsing? Was another kid coming out backwards? Nope. That is what a goat placenta looks like on its way out. Some sort of nasty bloody water balloon. Gross. Technically after the placenta is delivered a goat can still deliver another kid but its not really that common. Sometimes twins or triplets have their own but from my 'studies' they seem to commonly share one. 

  I even sent the poor lady a picture of the placenta or bloody water balloon when it was all out. I wanted to know if there was anything missing or anything to worry about. Come to think of it that's probably why she doesn't want to hang out with me huh? Now one last cute baby picture to wipe the gore from your mind.

Goat Week!

  Goat week, its like shark week only better 'cause its about goats and goats are amazing. I go out a couple times a day to just get my goat zen on. Nothing helps with anxiety or stress quite like watching baby goats at play. That being said I'm going to start out letting you all know I was not supposed to get any goats until next year. Of course, that means Hubs caved and got me some this year anyways. I'm currently up to 7 right now and one of those is pregnant. Poor Hubs. I'm going to do intros today since like I said I love my goats. They are all so different and its so fun to learn their personalities.

  First goat we got was Ruth. We called her Booger for a long time (still do). I wasn't supposed to get a goat thus we had no where to put her. She went into our rabbits outdoor pen and Bunny Barn for a night and day until Hubs threw together a goat pasture. That is just how he works. I tell people how he is a miracle worker but no one really believes me. Anyways, back to Ruth, she was severely underweight and had patchy hair from poor diet. We didn't know it at the time but she was actually pregnant in this picture. Now anyone who knows anything about goats knows they can't be along or they'll be depressed so we had to get another goat... the next day. :) 

   I went and picked up a goat that I was told was a Nubian mix the next day. Her name was Momma for a long time since she was pregnant. It is now officially Esther. I got these goats about the end of May and I was told Esther wasn't due until August, I just want to let you know that due date was wrong. So wrong. As of today, August 2, we have her very happy healthy doeling running around with her in the field and she is about a month plus a week or so. Also now that we know a bit more about goats we don't believe she has much Nubian if any at all. Esther looks to be mostly Saanen mixed with something else, maybe pygmy since she actually has a very short body. 

  Hubs built a shaded little area for the goats out of pallets that we affectionately dubbed the 'goat shack'. One side was water proof thanks to a stapled on tarp and the other just provided shade which is what Esther wanted since everyone knows being pregnant and in the sun is awful. This was a temporary structure. Like I mentioned before Hubs threw this whole set up together in less than 5 days. I pretty much gave the goats unlimited feed at this time too. The grass was still pretty sparse and with Ruth so scrawny and Esther pregnant it just felt like the best plan. Goats are a little bit like potato chips though, once you start.... you just can't stop.

   Next we got this lovely lady, her name was Clementine. That of course didn't go with our theme so we changed it to Abigail. She is younger than the other two goat so she likes to play more which means she made more work for poor Hubs. That little temporary structure he made just wasn't ready for this sweet little girl to jump on. In case you're wondering she is a purebred Alpine goat, no pedigree or anything like that of course since we don't care. Her horns are a little wonky from an attempted disbudding that didn't quite go according to plan.  

   Hubs had to put OSB on top of the goat shelter since she likes to play around on top of it. He also added some more 2x4s to strengthen it up. Also added more tarp so the summer thunderstorms wouldn't be able to blow the rain in. We still consider it to be temporary since we'd like a barn for them to into in the winter time at night. This is more of the field house. 

  In case you think that Hubs does all the work around here. This picture is here to prove you wrong. I made that hay feeder. I even carried the old table up there myself. I'm pretty handy too ;)

Goats like branches. They think they are some of the best treats in the world so we Hubs tries to trim trees a couple of times a week for the goats. Its not like we don't have plenty of trees in desperate need of trimming. I'm going to end day 1 of goat week here since the next goat we added deserves her own post. 

  

Wabbits!

  After you have chickens on your homestead its only logical to start thinking about another meat source. Especially if you're like me and hate butchering chickens because you hate plucking feathers. Honestly, when my parents and I processed chickens I could gut all day but ask me to defeather them and it was torture. I'm the sort of person that loves research, in fact, I over research. I research the crap out of things. All my searching led me to believe that rabbits were the next logical step for us. They didn't need much feed or space and put out a nice steady flow of meat. I know what you're all thinking.... 

  Not bunnies! They're cute and fluffy balls of adorableness. Yes, that is true. On the other hand, they can be a little bit evil. I have scars on my wrists from the sweet looking flufsters. Even that though I chalk up to me not paying attention to the rabbit enough. As for those concerned for the evils of eating the sweet bunnies, my rabbits have very happy lives. Their cages are large and they go outside often if not every day. They are supplied with as much hay as they want, tons of fresh greens, unlimited fresh water and a delicious mix of pellets and sunflower seeds. I'm assuming its delicious by how they dive in when I give it to them. They are handled and petted daily. Groomed and have their nails clipped almost every two weeks. All in all they are very spoiled rabbits. Honestly they might be treated better than some people treat their pet bunnies. Baby rabbits will get the same treatment. They will either be sold or they will have one bad minute and then will feed my family. Not a bad life for a rabbit. 

Honestly, do these rabbits look unhappy to you?

  Now for a little bit about our rabbit set up. We were happy to have a shed that worked perfectly to become the Bunny Barn. Hubs of course made all the cages because he is just handy like that. If anyone is interested in the how-tos of building a rabbit cage comment below and I'll make ask Hubs to write a blog post or a tutorial on how to make a rabbit cage or how to make rabbit nesting boxes since he made those too of course. It's ok to be a little jealous. 

This is the outside of the Bunny Barn. To the right is the rabbit garden where I grow rabbit approved goodies.

Inside the Bunny Barn, please excuse the mess. It was raining on cleaning day and I'm just waiting for it to dry up so I can clean every thing out again. Rabbits don't like to be wet. Their fur doesn't dry easily. We may be reworking this in the future so that there are metal trays under each cage. That way I can change them easier and more often. We saw the poop chute on pinterest but its just not working out as well as we hoped it would.

Other side of the Bunny Barn. I love my shelves, I wish they were more organized but that would mean staying in there and working on it instead of snuggling bunnies. 

  Now one of the hard things when you first get your cute adorable rabbits is waiting. We got some really cute 8-16 week old rabbits. They were old enough to be away from mom but not really old enough to breed. I had to sit back and feed them and watch them grow. It honestly felt like they were not holding up their end of the whole 'cheap and easy to feed' thing. For some reason my Californian Rabbits seem to eat the most. Not sure why but they out eat the New Zealands and the Rexs. We did get a Rex doe off of craigslist who was a year in hopes we could get a kindle (rabbit litter) out of her but thus far no luck. I think its because she's so fat. She also hates me. Loves Hubs but growls at me any time I put my hands in. 

She knocked her platform down and I wasn't going to put my hands in to fix it for her since she was growling loudly. I call her Patricia. Or Fatty Patty. Or Buttface. Whatever. The duct tape is so that the cage doesn't scratch up my arms. Friendly tip.

This is Bill, or Bilbo Baggins he's my favorite bunny. I love him the mostest. See the bite on his ear? That came from when he tried to 'cuddle' with Patty. 

Picture of Miss Bunny when she was still super preggers. She looked like she was going to explode the poor thing. I thought for sure she was going to have a huge litter. 

Up close picture of Miss Bunny in all her pregnancy glory. She only had 8 kits but they were big fat ones.

Xena did not want to pose for pictures. You can tell here she's pretty pregnant. She delivered 13 squirming kits. Thus far she's been an excellent mommy. She has lost one baby but I think it was because of something being wrong with the baby not her caretaking skills.

Now instead of introducing the rest of my rabbits how about adorable kitten pictures? Ah didn't you know a baby rabbit is called a kitten or a kit for short? Learn something new every day.

Miss Bunny's 8 kits

Xena's 13 kits

Checking on the fat little lumplings. Miss Bunny had a momentary first time mommy lapse where she peed on her nest. I had to pull all of them out and wash them off with a wash cloth and make them a new nest. That's why I check them twice a day. Even if I'm going to eat them eventually, they're going to get the best care possible while they're with me. 

Renovations Master Bedroom Part 1

  I say part one, of course who knows when everything will really be finished. When we bought the house there was a large closet taking up one wall. It was nice for storage but I hated the look of it. Plus with the closet in there I couldn't fit all my bedroom furniture in the room. I had a plan though.

This is how it looked when we bought it.

After we moved in, I accidentally on purpose chipped a bit of the paint away to see how bad it would be to strip it all off to repaint. Hubs was not pleased. I think it looks like a dinosaur. I call him Harry. 

Hubs tore all the closet out like it was nothing; occasionally he complained that they built the closet more like a room than a closet. It was heavy duty. 

I still haven't painted. The pink carpet is going to come out since the original hardwood floors are underneath. In the above picture you can see the construction going on in my parlor/formal dining room. My poor old farm house. I like the lay out of the master bedroom much better and the light doesn't hit us in the eyes anymore in the morning. I can hardly wait for phase two.

Every farms' first animals

 Like most homesteaders or any people that dream of being self sufficient we immediately got some chickens when we moved in. Well, actually I got some chickens and surprised poor Hubs that he needed to quickly build a little shelter for the 3 hens we were going to pick up in a couple days. I'm fun like that. Somehow he managed to throw this bad boy together in the 3 days before we drove up to get the chickens.

   When we got to the Chicken Lady's house something had eaten one of the chickens. We were now down to two chickens. This should have been a warning to me against free ranging. I was still convinced free ranging would b great I mean, come on, we had so much area. The chickens would be in bird heaven. They lasted about a week. A fox ate one and then a hawk took a chunk out of the surviving one's back. It got nasty and infected so we had to cull the chicken. A new plan was needed. 

  Hubs convinced me to just wait for chicks. They're cheaper and it would give him time to build a better area for them. An area that would be impervious to the other wild life that would eat my chickens. Plus chicks are cute AND he said that maybe I could even get ducks. I was sold. Just had to wait until they started being sold around February and April.

Picking out some chicks at the hatchery.

Maverick being snuggled by a baby duck.

  The cute little chicks and ducklings stayed in our basement. At first it seemed like such a good idea. It was nice and warm down there and there was running water and electricity so it was really easy to feed and water them. The big problem? They STINK! Oh my goodness, how they stank. I was cleaning out their brooders constantly. Especially the ducklings, even more so when they got older and started getting water to swim in. We had two of the big 75 gallon stock tanks they sell at TSC (Tractor Supply Company) since they were more or less easy to clean out and I wasn't too worried about a fire hazard with them. Ducks had one and chicks had another. We had 12 ducks but lost 1 and had 22 chicks and lost 1. Not too bad. As soon as it started warming up I kicked them outside in the backyard with the little coop Hubs had made because I couldn't stand the smell a second longer.

  I wish I had taken more picture of Hubs working on the Poultry Palace. He really did an amazing job. The plans he used were these, they are free and the windows we used were ordered from that site as well. No, I am not being paid to advertise. I figure it's only fair to give credit where credit's due. Now for a quick picture montage of the Poultry Palace construction. 

I did most of the painting!

Bird netting to keep out hawks.

Everyone is moved in.

There is still trim work to be done. If my kitchen trim isn't done the chicken's sure as heck aren't going to have trim either. On the left is the rain catchment system Hubs is planning on setting up but for some reason lacks time to do. Not sure why.... could it be the fact that I'm picking up a new goat on Friday? Or maybe the fact that I have a rabbit that delivered a kindle of 10 to 12 kits today and another one due any second now? Poor guy. Now on to the inside.

We hang the feed from the ceiling and Hubs built the nest boxes, of course he built the whole thing so why would he buy nest boxes?

This cool little roosting rack is designed special for me. It folds up onto the wall so when we rake all the nasty straw out its up and out of the way. Most of the chickens roost on it at night. A couple of weirdos roost up in the rafters and some sleep on the floor. 

Biggest problem with all those chickens and ducks? More eggs than I know what to do with! Hubs is building me a sign that I am going to put out on the drive that says farm fresh eggs for sale. I wanted it to say chicken butt nuggets but he said that it sounds nasty and no one would stop. When you get at least a dozen eggs a day its a little overwhelming. Hopefully, people buy them so I don't end up wasting all these eggs.