ELeVan ~ Honaker Farm Journal

[elevan]

I noticed on the sister sites that there are a lot of member journals. I thought I might like to start one but I'm on this site much more often than the others. So it makes more sense to do one here. Feel free to just read or to actively participate.

Let's start with a little background:


I've always had animals of some sort my entire life. And so we pretty quickly moved from having 3 goats to now having 10. A llama to protect the goats...We already had the horses and potbelly pigs.

We added chickens in August of 2010 only to loose 10 of 11 due to a mink attack a few short months after starting. A friend gave us 3 to keep our "Lucky" girl company. Then we rescued a hen and a roo from a drunk only to end up sending the roo to freezer camp due to a bad attitude.

What's on the agenda:

Updated January 2013

Dwarf goats are my passion and I kind of want the best of both worlds. So I'm on a quest to meld the lowly pygmy with the nigerian dwarf to selectively obtain what I'm after. A true tri-purpose miniature goat (that would be milk, meat, companion)...I guess it would be quad purpose if you count weed eating

We're currently redoing an old barn to meet our current needs. It is a never ending job it seems.

We now have a booth at the Farmer's Market and it keeps me busy through the week preparing for and has brought a lot of new customers to the farm. Our products are also in a local store and we're expanding to more this year as well as planning to open our own farm store.

I'm writing a couple of early readers for kids. One early reader is done and just needs illustration and sent for publishing.

G.A.S. Gear is going crazy and I've wrote an published a Goat Notes health and record book for goats.

Our animal list as of July 9, 2013:
Pygmy Goats (2) Diva, Kingston
Nigerian Dwarf Goat (1) Ranger
Pygerian Goat (3) Snickers, Precious, Priya
PB Pig (1) Spam
Chickens (20) varied breeds
Guinea fowl (6)
Ducks (9)
Dogs (4)
Cats (6)
Rabbits (9)

 

[elevan]

Not a lot exciting today.

We spent a good deal of time chasing Lilly around trying to get pictures to add to her kidding thread We really want does from Lilly. This was an accidental breeding since it happened only a couple of months after she kidded a single doeling. Here's hoping for at least twins this time

While we were at it we decided to just take some random shots.

Here's one of my boys with Ranger and Speedy

My DH with Snickers

Miss Diva

We tried our best to get a picture of Diva's twin brother, Kingston but it was a no go. Checked on his banding and it's looking good although I really wish that they would fall off. It's been a couple of weeks and they are pretty dry and yucky DH "feels so bad" for the little guy. But we've already got 3 bucks for 5 does!!!

We've got so many projects started right now it's crazy. If the rain would just stop for a while we might be able to finish something!
We're expecting 60* weather tomorrow with 0% chance of rain so it'll be out to work on the big chicken coop!

Speaking of the chickens...we just got a HUGE egg (I'll have to take a pic). I'm pretty sure it came from our white cochin. It's 5x bigger than normal! I'm going to have to crack it open soon and see what's inside...my boys wanted to crack it right away...I'm keeping them in suspense!

Then we went to town to do some shopping. All was good until we went to Walmart. There was a young mother there with a girl about 10 years old. The girl was swinging from racks and climbing all over the shopping cart and in general being a very bad child (even my boys commented on how bad she was) The final straw came when the girl kicked her flip flops off her dirty feet and climbed into the meat cooler! Her mom just kept saying "you're gonna get grounded" and then basically ignored her! My DH wouldn't let me make a scene so I sent him to go get a manager while I waited there. Mom and girl took off before they got back. We made the manager remove the top line of products and clean the cooler bunker. Let me tell you some people should just not have children

After that little episode I decided I was done shopping...

We went to dinner and the conversation turned to that BIG chicken egg. My oldest boy (who is almost 7) looked at me and said, "Mom, we really need to crack it open. We might find a baby DUCK inside!"

Well that was pretty much my day. Hope tomorrow is more productive.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Wow, your days are much more exciting than mine!!

 

[elevan]

Wow, your days are much more exciting than mine!!

This was a relatively boring day...except for the Walmart incident


eta: I shouldn't say "boring" ...less than exciting is more like it!

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Wow, your days are much more exciting than mine!!

This was a relatively boring day...except for the Walmart incident


eta: I shouldn't say "boring" ...less than exciting is more like it!

 

[elevan]

Well since the day technically starts at midnight...I guess I spent a few hours on the internet at the beginning of the day. I was an insomniac last night. Couldn't get to sleep till almost 3:30 am!

Because of that I slept late and missed most of the morning. And what a beautiful day it was today! We were in the 60s with clear blue skies and lots of sunshine

The plan today was to work on the new large coop...but...there's always a but isn't there? Went to the garage to get the saw and found it non-operational So that idea ground to a halt

So we switched to cleaning the barn up. I'm ashamed to admit the mountain of empty feed sacks that I dealt with this afternoon. About half of them got their bottoms cut off and split open to be rolled and reused later as "material" in the making of feed sack purses and totes. Another quarter got rolled up and put away to be used as garbage bags. The other quarter was just discarded as unusable.

On the way to the barn we heard a hen in their giving her egg song. By the time we got to the barn we realized it was the hen that's been hiding eggs from us. Daggone it! If we were a little faster we might have been able to figure out where she's been laying. We've turned the barn practically upside down and haven't been able to figure out where she's hiding those eggs.

We don't have a rooster right now so there's no purpose in letting her set on them. I figure if we don't find her spot by the time she has a clutch we'll be looking for her as well. I may have to buy some fertile eggs for her :/

I decided to be lazy with dinner tonight and made pizza using Naan bread as a pizza crust. I have to admit that the Naan made an excellent crust. I'll definitely have to keep some on hand.

Finishing off the day watching American Idol.

 

[elevan]

Took my Mom out today to go shopping for plants and planters and out to lunch. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the Mom's on the forum!

This is the second day in a row that we've gone shopping. Yesterday we went out and came back with the car's trunk and backseat loaded from top to bottom...including 10- 2x4s! We had people at Menards laughing at us as we worked the load like a jigsaw puzzle to get it all in...and we did!

It rained most of both days so we rushed to get things planted in pots in between downpours.

I also got the second children's early reader written. It'll need illustrated too.

Tonight I decided to make a couple of batches of cheese (experiments for the cookbook).

Batch #1 - Chocolate Cheese! Turned out pretty good as a fresh cheese...but I'm gonna age it to see how it turns out.

Batch #2 - Balsamic Cheese! I have to admit that I'm not too fond of this one in it's fresh state. My boys have declared it good and it wouldn't be the first time that I made something that I don't like but everyone else does :/ We're gonna age this one for a while too and see how it goes...

All in all a pretty good day.

 

[elevan]

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Mother's Day!

I spent the morning with my Mom visiting my Grandma. About fell over when we walked into her house...it must have been 100* in there!! It was a beautiful 70* outside. It was a lovely visit despite the heat inside though. I always enjoy visiting my Grandma...I'm named after her...Emily Louise

In the course of conversation I asked Grandma about chick raising when she was a girl. Specifically what the chicks were fed. Interestingly enough it was 1 of 2 things...either cornmeal soaked in milk with egg yolks mixed in or day old bread soaked in milk with egg yolks mixed in.

Adult chickens were expected to find most of their feed in the yard (free ranging) but were supplemented as needed with scrambled eggs or leftovers from the (human) meals. Of course leftovers got split between chickens and pigs.

It was an interesting talk

When we got home it was out to take care of some animal chores of our own. The bucks (goats)needed their second dose of Ivomec for lice
I worked on the buck's feet while I was at it. Though when it was time to get Snickers' feet done it became a real chore when Speedy decided that he wanted to "ride" Snickers Boy that was fun! NOT!

I noticed some wasps are trying to make a nest in the buck's barn so I'm gonna have to deal with that tomorrow. Hung the fly trap today in there. There's not a problem with flies yet in the doe's barn, just the buck barn...wonder why?

An inspection of the pasture resulted in finding a basketball in the small pond...not sure how it got there :/ but after fishing it out I gave it to one of the dogs. Barney loves basketballs and his was pretty much gone (only one little scrap was left). Oh, the joy that dog felt getting a new basketball to play with

I put the cheeses that I made yesterday into molds / presses. Tomorrow night I should be able to start "coating" them. Chocolate cheese is gonna get a coating of cocoa powder. I'm not sure yet what I'm coating the Balsamic cheese with...any ideas? I do have to say that the Balsamic cheese tastes better today than it did yesterday

Tomorrow's plan is to work on the new chicken coop's floor. Maybe I'll get lucky and be able to get it done in one day
DH is applying for a new job tomorrow...help me wish him luck his current one is really bringing him down (too much stress and an idiot boss).

 

[elevan]

Wow! Has it really been a month since I posted to this journal? Well, I must apologize as it's been a heck of a month.

On May 13, I went to my first swap meet / sale / auction. We took the car because my intent was to purchase some turkeys...nothing more. Well....I ended up with 2 calves, 2 chicks, 3 bobwhite quail and 2 ducks!! What the heck was I thinking??!! After nearly an hour of trying to arrange transport for the calves, we just decided the backseat of the car was big enough for 2 calves

Here's the pic to prove I'm not lying:

More pics available on our facebook page along with the other critters we brought home that day.

I swore I'd never bottle feed but here I bought 2 calves that were still on the bottle because they were only about a week old! And this was our first experience with cows!

Only a few days later both calves were down! After fighting to save them we lost one and saved the other.

I was heartbroken for the loss of the one calf. Felt like a failure even though I know that I wasn't.

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In the month since I posted last I've lost that first calf, my grandfather and then just today one of my best friends...my chocolate lab, Beanie. Life just doesn't seem fair sometimes that so many things have to be piled on you all at once. But we are only given as much as we can bear, right?

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Lilly, still hasn't given birth...I'm beginning to doubt myself on this one...
It was an accidental breeding, I felt positive that she was bred...now I'm not so sure :/ Check out her kidding thread and give me your opinion.
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=10453&p=1

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I have been updating on our facebook page so if you want to catch up on the past month some more then please check us out there.

I'll do my best not to neglect my journal here in the future

Thanks for reading and feel free to participate.

 

[elevan]

Today started out as it always does...

Get up - go out to feed the calf and let the chickens out of the coop...

So, I fed the calf his bottle and then he and I went for a walk around the big pond as we do every time after he gets his bottle. He tried to make friends with the ducks...they were only mildly interested Then it is was to the coop to let the chickens out for the day. For the first time I let my 2 youngest out...an EE and an EE/Frizzle X. I put the bob white quail out into the yard in their "cage"...I don't have a pen set up for them yet so the 3 of them are currently residing in a Havahart trap Hey, it works right?!

About that time, Cinnamon (our broody hen) flew out of the coop. She needed a good dust bath, some water and a quick run apparently. Her best bud, Susie (a Hamburg hen) came running up all excited to see her...but Cinnamon didn't want a thing to do with her, which of course hurt Susie's feeling...Poor chickie

Had a little bit of down time until around noon. Went back out and fed the calf his noon bottle (we're trying to get some weight on and energy into him). Came back in and sat down to lunch to have a neighbor knock on the door. He saw a strange dog run through the yard and leap over our dividing fence. One of our dogs went after it and caught his collar on the fence. Before, the neighbor could get there our dog was gone...hung to death I was able to catch the stray and put her into a dog crate...called the dog warden and she will be out tomorrow to pick up the stray. I consider the darn dog indirectly responsible for my dog's death but I'll turn her over for the dog warden to decide how to deal with the owners...there is no collar on the dog but maybe she'll have a chip :/ And so for the second day in a row I had to bury a dog

Then we went out to Rural King to pick up some barn paint that they have on sale. Came back just before sundown. When I went out the back door I immediately saw the little EE chick in the backyard, not the field where she belongs! Thank goodness I didn't have my Basenji by my side as normal...he usually follows me to the gate and then sits to watch the animals...he would have made dinner out of the little chick. Scooped her up and put her into the coop along with the rest of the girls, brought the bob whites in, checked on the broody and closed the coop. Then it was off to feed the calf his evening bottle...then the walk around the pond...scare off the cat who is stalking one of the smaller ducks...and on to feed the pot belly pig.

And then I got the bright idea to try to take some of the llama's fur off I've never sheared a llama...and he's never been sheared...but he looks so darn hot. The only clippers I have are for my DH's head and he'd kill me if I used them...so I decided to just use scissors and take off a little fur at a time. For my trouble I got a kick to the calf muscle and a knee to the groin...all to get an armful of fiber If I were a guy I would have been on the ground with the knee to the groin. Even so, that was the end of that try. We'll try again...or if anyone knows a someone who shears llamas in Central Ohio, please let me know

After that I was done for the day...time for a long shower. Hopefully, tomorrow is a better day...although it starts off with a ultrasound at 6:10 in the morning to see why I'm having stomach pains :/ Wish me luck!