ELeVan ~ Honaker Farm Journal

[Dreaming Of Goats]

Is she's really bad, you may want to separate her, bring her inside if you have AC (The garage would probably be cool enough), put some frozen water bottles in the pen, lots of cold water, and maybe even some frozen peas. Oh, and a fan, or at least some of these ideas, and that will help!!!! I'm sure the other chooks would enjoy it too

 

[elevan]

It's been such a tiring day.

I woke up with a mild migraine...sent DH out to let the poultry out for the day while I took a painkiller. That knocked me out for the next 4 hours. Got up and went to check on the critters.

As soon as I walked out of the back door I had to turn around and holler at DH to come help me and not to let the dogs out. Cinnamon's 2 little roo chicks were in the backyard (they can walk right through the fence from the field). We got them back into the field and Cinnamon gave them both a scolding.

We decided to go out for a late lunch after checking to make sure everyone had clean, fresh water. When we got back I looked out the back door to again find something out of place...this time it was the turkey hen in the field hanging out with the ducks. I really do need to clip her wing...everyone keeps warning me to be careful of the blood feathers and I guess it's got me scared to get it done. But she keeps flying fences or getting on top of the coop so I've got to get it done...let's see if I can gain some courage and do it in the morning...

Then DH went to work and I took the boys to a birthday party. We were cutting it close trying to get home before dark...I had about 15 minutes. The chickens in the little coop put themselves to bed without problem. But the chicks in the big coop decided to give me a hard time about going to bed...ugh! Then the turkeys wanted to roost on top of their coop instead of in it...double ugh!!

And now I'm exhausted and can't go to sleep...


eta: Fluffy is still with us and seems to be doing better.

 

[elevan]

Well, we finally clipped the turkey's wings...it was no big deal. Although the turkeys were mad at us for a while

The integration of our 2 chicken flocks is going well. I'm very pleased with how smoothly things are going and will probably combine the 2 coops next week.

The guineas are growing quite well. Despite the first hurdle when we brought them home, I'm very pleased with raising guineas so far

Tomorrow is blackberry picking day! I did a walk around the field and found quite a few bushes left (the goats have been eating them). So we'll venture in and fill a basket tomorrow.

On the agenda for tomorrow is also goat hoof trimming and copper bolusing.

Sorry for the short update and the fact that I've been MIA on the journal for a few days... I've been spending time with my grandmother and today she had a pacemaker put in. She's doing well and is in good spirits...should be able to come home tomorrow

 

[Ms. Research]

Glad to hear everything is going smoothly with the chickens. Good luck with the hoof trimming.

Glad to hear your Grandmother is doing well. Sending wishes for a quick recovery from New Jersey!

 

[JusticeFamilyFarm]

Glad the wing clipping went on without a hitch. You sounded like me with hoof trimming, I was nervous and kept putting it off... then we finally did it and other than getting them to stay still for a second, it was no big deal. I guess whenever something is new, right? Also happy to hear the integration is going smoothly, always nice to hear. Hope you get lots of blackberries tomorrow- yum!
Sending well wishes to your Grandmothers for a quick and easy recovery.

 

[elevan]

Berry picking was fun. Didn't get enough to make a pie but they are good eating Maybe we should fence the bushes off to keep the goats off them :/ We've fenced around select Elderberry bushes or else the goats will eat them until we only have a stick coming out of the ground.

My Grandma is doing well today. Thanks for the well wishes She's who I was named after and I was her first granddaughter (out of only 3...lots of boys) so I was spoiled by her. She's also my wealth of knowledge for farm life...though her old time methods are sometimes different than my own. She thinks my interaction with the goats and the chickens is hilarious...but I'm glad I can make her laugh that way.

I'm off to the County Extension office to have a bush identified....hopefully it's edible (nice berries).

And later it's hoof trimming time. And gotta weigh the young goats so they can all get their semi-annual copper bolusing.

ETA: Well...hoof trimming is being put off for another day. I'll be attending a class put on by the extension office tonight about small ruminant parasites and some new studies being done in Ohio.

 

[elevan]

Information on the seminar that I attended can be found here . It was very informational and I'm glad I went. I'll be attending their next 2 sessions via internet and their Field Day in person at the end of the month. Looking forward to getting my first taste of lamb at the field day.

I questioned the extension agent after the seminar about the shrub specimen that I took in earlier. I apparently have him stumped :/ He said the first thing he thought before he really looked at it was "blueberry" but that's not what it is...it's got some characteristics of elderberry, but it's not that. He said he's gonna have to do some consulting but right now believes we may have a blueberry / elderberry hybrid growing on the property...or it could be a new plant specimen all together. I'll keep you posted.

 

[elevan]

It turns out the bush growing prolifically on our farm is the Nannyberry...How funny is that??? Or how appropriate I should say!

Leaves are considered medicinal. And berries are edible and supposed to be good for preserves....should be ripe at the end of this month!

 

[elevan]

I wish days with great big highs didn't come with ANY lows... ah, well...

We had an unexpected "windfall" that has allowed us to get some building materials to finish up some projects that have been put off...including getting electricity to the barn!! I am so excited that we'll be able to have heated tanks out there this winter

I'm bummed because my big mouth got me in trouble and I usually try so hard to be "political". Gotta try harder, I guess :/

Animals are all doing well.

We've got some storms coming in this afternoon that will bring some needed rain, but hopefully no wind or lightning damage. The last storm lightning took out an entire shade tree in our backyard. Our boys watched it come down from their bedroom window and alerted us to what was going on...it almost fell onto the field fence (just barely missed).

A few friends and I got into a discussion on Facebook last night about living off the grid in a post disaster scenerio...got me thinking about a thread I started on here. So, I'll share it again in case anyone new wants to join in: http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=10229

 

[Ms. Research]

I wish days with great big highs didn't come with ANY lows... ah, well...

We had an unexpected "windfall" that has allowed us to get some building materials to finish up some projects that have been put off...including getting electricity to the barn!! I am so excited that we'll be able to have heated tanks out there this winter

I'm bummed because my big mouth got me in trouble and I usually try so hard to be "political". Gotta try harder, I guess :/

Animals are all doing well.

We've got some storms coming in this afternoon that will bring some needed rain, but hopefully no wind or lightning damage. The last storm lightning took out an entire shade tree in our backyard. Our boys watched it come down from their bedroom window and alerted us to what was going on...it almost fell onto the field fence (just barely missed).

A few friends and I got into a discussion on Facebook last night about living off the grid in a post disaster scenerio...got me thinking about a thread I started on here. So, I'll share it again in case anyone new wants to join in: http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=10229

Life wouldn't be interesting without out the Hi's and Low's. I've learned after 50 years it's HOW you deal with it.

Congratulations on the Future Electricity in your Barn. Definitely makes it a little easier in the winter time.

And regarding the Bummer big mouth part? Oh well Thanks for posting the additional thread. I'm at that mindset as well. Better Half has had that mindset for a long time, and helped me understand the way it could be. Nothing to be scared about, just be prepared. I really enjoyed the comments there. VERY informative. Once I sit and really think, I'll post them there.

Rain is needed, but sometimes Mother Nature gets a little upset. Smart boys you have there to sounding the alert. Shame about that shade tree but glad it turned out OK.