Carla D-Great new adventures and an Amazing Life

[Bruce]

I can imagine that a really flooded field would take quite a long time to dry out. And then replant, maybe no hay crop for the year. That would sure put the pinch on a farmers wallet.

 

[Carla D]

We have some new members in our little herd. As of today they are between 1.5-3 days old. These babies want to be held more than they want to eat. A couple of these babies seek out attention and snuggle right into my arms. Zeus wanted my attention even before I picked him out of his little condo.
Zeus, Nubian buckling
Luna, baby girl
Gypsy, baby girl
Galaxy, baby girl
Thor, my other little boy
Sugar, baby girl
Candy, baby girl
Star, baby girl

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Wow! Lots more goats! Looks like a variety of breeds. Love it! You’ll definitely fall in love with the Lamanchas!

 

[Carla D]

Wow! Lots more goats! Looks like a variety of breeds. Love it! You’ll definitely fall in love with the Lamanchas!

I already have. What I can’t get over is how dainty and feminine the baby girls are. Only a couple are a bit aloof. But, I also think they may two of the youngest ones. I was pretty surprised that 5 of them passed meconium either on the way home of in their new home. I was expecting the doelings to be a month old. The guy told me they hang onto their girls for about a month to see if they want to keep them. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the babies were only 24 hours old or less, except for Zeus, he’s much bigger, more stable on his feet, and pretty attention hungry. I wasn’t sure I would be so fond of the Lamanchas. It’s the ears thing. But, they were the easiest for me to select from. From the people in here who have raised Lamanchas they are all so smitten and in love with them. I can see why.

 

[Carla D]

We had another baby born on the farm over. My rabbit Ginger had one baby. He was about three times the size I expected a kit to be. She also delivered 7 days early. I’m not sure if I should expect more in about a week or not. I’m thinking she is probably done. Here’s a picture of the little guy. He was not alive when I found him.

 

[Bruce]

dare I ask if it is alive?

 

[Carla D]

dare I ask if it is alive?

Oops, no he’s not. When I got to the farm this morning he was already really, really cold, and quite stiff. I maybe should have tried to warm him up, but because he was as stiff as he was I thought it was too late to even try.

He’s the size of two or three kits, isn’t he?

 

[Carla D]

We have three new babies on our farm tonight. One of our two pregnant gilts farrowed today. She had five total, that we know of. When we got to the barn this morning she was in the process of polishing off her first born which had still been in the sac. I never got to see that one. She had one black and white boy that was stillborn. But she also had three of the reddest piglets I’ve ever seen. Two girls that were a bit small, and the third was a good sized boy. Midnight Special did struggle a little bit, but she is a model momma. She’s so gentle with them and very cautious when she moves around. I’m sure DH will give her at least one more chance at motherhood.


Our new baby goats are growing at a pretty good pace. At 11 days of age they are ranging from 7.6-11.6#. The lightest one had 1.5 days where she didn’t eat very well. Coccidiosis. They are all being treated for that at the moment. But, Candy is now one of my biggest eaters. She should be caught up weight wise in a very short period of time. They were all disbudded on Friday. That went really well. The babies didn’t hardly make a peep. The vet gave them a nerve block at the bud site. That hadn’t slowed them down one bit. Tonight I introduced them to Timothy grass. That made them so frisky.

We have yet to make an offer on a home. We were a day too slow in making an offer on three places. Only time will tell where we end up moving to.

Our big goats are doing so well. The vet said they looked quite tasty. I haven’t measured them in a while. But I’m thinking they must all be at or around the 100# mark. That seems pretty big for six month old wethers. But, they are looking so nice and shiny, frisky, and loving the outside. I take them out in the morning and bring them back into the barn at night. With all of the craziness lately we haven’t made them their permanent shelter yet. We will likely wait until we are moved into our next place. But the plan is to build a quick lean to tomorrow for them. I want to bring the babies outside as well on the warmer days. It has been quite cold the last three days for some reason.

 

[Carla D]

I finally came to the decision to sell five or six of my wethers. It’s a decision I’ve been struggling with. I was almost ready to be ok with the decision and choose to believe they were either being used as companion animals, pets, or somewhere they could live. But I had someone ask me if we had a butcher on site. He wanted to buy the six pigs and my goats that we have listed for sale and have them done on site. I didn’t shut the door on him, but I’m struggling really hard with this. I have been told by a few of the seasoned goat people they would rather put a good goat in the freezer than wonder what kind of life they are leading. I’m desperately struggling to adopt that philosophy. I was really hoping they could live out a great life with someone else. I think I could be ok if they were also put in someone else’s freezer. But I’m struggling with them being rendered on our site. Please tell me this will get easier. In the future, I plan on selling my Lamancha and Nubians once they are weaned or a couple of weeks old so I don’t get too attached to them. But my boys and I have been through some really trying times together. I have come to the realization that keeping only two, possibly three is in our best interest and theirs. They could easily be kept with my two bucks or in with the does and young goats.

I went out on a limb and did something really crazy two days ago. I had both the big guys who are almost seven months old and roughly 100# and my almost four week old babies running loose yet closely supervised run and jump around on a nice pile of large logs and an almost green but wet area together. I was so surprised at how gentle the big guys were with the babies. They had so much fun running, climbing, and playing together. But honestly they are taking up too much real estate and feed for being strictly pets. I can almost justify keeping two possibly three of them. We did buy a house. It’s in town. So our animals are going to be at my SIL’s farm for another couple of years. Space is running short so we need to maximize our use of space as best as possible. We have 35 piglets all less than three weeks old and one more sow to farrow. We are even getting rid of our monster boar and basically all of our pigs except our six proven sows and our one year old Hereford boar. We have 45-50 pigs of various sizes and ages that are or will be for sale now or the next month or so.

 

[Mike CHS]

We will sell and take animals to a butcher for processing but we don't allow it to be done on our place. To us it's more a matter of liability and disposing of the offal that we aren't set up for. Our butcher is USDA certified and there is no question of problems with handling the animals.