ELeVan ~ Honaker Farm Journal

[Squirrelgirl88]

Wanted you to know that I just saw your story on the news. Good Job MOM!!! It inspiring to see you bring this out in the open and not let anyone put you down. K is beautiful. I hope your story inspires other kids and Mom's to stand up to judgmental people and put at stop to the bullying. Big Hugs to your family!

 

[elevan]

Thank you. The support that I've been receiving in my inbox and on Facebook has been amazing! People from our school are searching me out just to let me know that they support us.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Good Luck hope the situation gets better!

 

[bonbean01]

I just knew it would go super well!!!!

 

[elevan]

If anyone wants to see the story, just send me a PM and I'll provide you with the link.

 

[jodief100]

Here to hoping....

 

[elevan]

This was overall quite a bad year for us.

January turned my bathroom into a hospital triage area. I had one duck in the bathtub and a dehydrated guinea in the shower stall. Mom's rabbits ate one of their own which led to us butchering several until we figured out which one was the problem. They were 4 months old and being housed together. Shortly before this we had a rabbit (Vinnie) who had his tail and ear ate off, he went to the bathroom hospital area for recovery.
I came home from picking the kids up from school to find the neighbor's dog attacking one of my animals. I laid on the horn, threw it into park and jumped out of the car running at it. The horn startled the dog enough to make it let go and I realized that it was Hank, our head rooster. I kept running to make sure he was ok and he ran to one of our dogs for protection. I then proceeded to chase after the dog all the while yelling for the neighbor to get it. They come out yelling at me that it's just and bleepin bird. I LOST it and gave them everything that was on my mind which of course escalated the yelling between us. I called the dog warden and the sheriff's department over the situation.
I found Maggie, one of our goats, dead in the middle of the field with a broken neck. We suspected the neighbors but couldn't prove it.
Our guineas went missing for a week straight along with DH's cat. When they came home I saw them leaving the neighbor's barn so we suspect that they had them locked up.
We had our first bottle baby goat in the house with us (Scottie).
Built my mom a new 3 hole hutch for her rabbits so that they wouldn't all be housed in the same pen.

February - Rollie, one our rabbits, had babies on the wire on a cold bitter day....no survivors.
The kids shut our best hen's neck in the door of the coop, breaking her neck...I found her that way the next day.
Goldie, our oldest goat, died on Valentine's day.
Jerry, our llama, whose age was unknown (other than older) died.
When a friend came to bury Jerry we went to the barn to get him out and found Lilly (our next oldest goat) curled up next to him dead.

March - took our two standard sized goats in for processing, where they kept escaping their holding pen and we had to keep catching them and putting them back in.
Put our bottle baby goat outside after he was finally weaned on March 10th.
Marilyn, a rabbit, had babies and was great for a first time mama.
March 14th, went out to check on Scottie (bottle baby goat) to find him curled up in a sleeping position - dead.
March 19th - looked out the window to see mom's horse IN the overflow pond!! Called my brother to see if he could come help me get her out but between the two of us we couldn't do it. I called animal control seeking help and they sent out the fire department and a horse sanctuary team. The firemen put on wet suits and got into the pond and pushed while we pulled - to no avail. Then someone thought of a sled using a piece of corrugated roofing...she slid right out of the pond. The vet worked on her for hours, pumping in warm iv fluids and medications but it was to no avail, she had been in the pond to long and succumbed to hypothermia. She was 28 years old.

April - went on the radio to promote my jam / jelly business for the local store that sells it and ended up talking about goat meat too.
Published Goat Notes as an eBook and a hard copy.
Had someone confess to killing Maggie, some of our chickens and a dog.
Marilyn, one of our rabbits, dropped 5 kits today on the wire. She shouldn't have been pregnant...she shouldn't still be with a male....but alas they are not my rabbits.
Neighbor's cat was caught attacking one of my ducks. DH caught it before I could shoot it. It was turned over to animal control.
Hit 2 deer with my car damaging a good bit of the side of the car. The deer lumbered off never to be seen again.

May - lost our best doe (and herd queen)to a bad kidding while we were gone during the day. Came home to find her already gone.
Broody hen hatched 7 chicks and then one by one lost them all but one.

June - Duck hatched out some guinea keets which we promptly took from her. Sold them a few days later.
2 days later the duck hatched out her own duck eggs, 7 in all. Then she proceeded to lose a duckling every other day until she only had 1 left, which she raised up to full size. I do wish that I'd taken the ducklings and hand reared them so that we'd have more.

July - Goats started climbing the fence and going into the neighbor's yard where she would set her dogs. This became a daily occurrence. After several weeks of this I decided to sell the herd. I had to literally tie the buck in the barn to prevent them from going over the fence. Not a good life for the goats.
Hens stopped laying in the nest boxes because the goats were using the coop for a playground.
Lost four guinea hens that had been setting on nests outside of the coop to predation.

August - Goats went to their new home. I still miss them to this day.
My Grandma Emily was diagnosed with cancer...such a dirty word that is. The doctors said she was too frail to survive chemo.
Another broody hen had 2 chicks....lost one but managed to keep the other alive.
The final broody guinea hen that we had hatched out 20 keets, but eventually lost all but 5.
2 of our cats had kittens but the got flystrike and didn't make it.

September - someone ran over one of my favorite cats and killed it.

October - Pig got loose and led us on a chase. I grabbed the gun ready to put her down I was so fed up when she finally went back into her pen.
Grandma Emily passed away on October 31.

November / December - Thankfully nothing bad. Here's hoping that next year turns out much better.

Gosh reading through this makes me look like a horrible animal owner but it was just a really rough year.

 

[Livestock lover]

 

[Hens and Roos]

and heading into this next year!

 

[bonbean01]

Pretty rough year Em...here's hoping for a terrific 2014 for you!!!!