newton's the goats journal

[newton the goat]

If you have more than one ram it gives you more options the next breeding season but one ram can easily breed your flock. If you use two you can rotate the two for a couple of lambing seasons so they do have more options.

Yep Thats the idea We woupd like to do something like that for each breeding season for a little bit before we need to bring in new blood.

So today we are working on building a kew pasture (feels like thats what we do every weekend) we have decided to cut into the bush next to the river... actually morw like my dad has decided to do that and all i can see is how big of a nightmare rolling the giant roll of cattle fencing into that squishy space... oh well at least the sheep will like it
they have demolished all the lower branches of trees in the pasture and all the bush as well. Here are some photos of the new pasture :

This is the feild that they are in right now (not full view but view of one side) and as you can
See partially they have left the lower bushes comepletely barren!

Any ideas how to manuver a big spool of fencing in and out of bushes?
We are already taking thw weed wacker in to try and clear up some of the bush and shubbery so we can put posts in easily enough. Haha we also are adding onto the pig pasture.... (help!) our little piggies are not so little now and require more space to roam and dig
This is their old pasture (or part of it)

This is what we are adding on :

So much to do and it feels like we have so little time left before winter we still have 2 more pastures to finish and a barn to still put up (ARGH!!!!) work has had me not only on my toes but also attempting to be bright eyed and busshy tailed by 4am three to four times a week...which so.far hasnt happened willingly. I would love to post photos of some of their Cows or even their set up but they are pretty private people so im gonna respect that and just do my work as im asked to. they have Some really nice lineage in some of their cows and are even raising an AI bull from one of their prize winning heifers he is the cutest little bull youve ever seen and is only about a month old (so fuzzy!!!) now excuse me as i wrap this up and return back to fence building

 

[goatgurl]

your sheep are going to love their new pasture, ant the pigs too. fore fresh munchies. my only suggestion for the fence is to cut it into manageable pieces and take it out a chunk at a time. going to be hard work how ever you do it.
aren't those bottle calves adorable. love calf slobber.

 

[Mike CHS]

Depending on how long your runs are you can cut to fit. Our first pen wound around in fairly heavy woods so wherever we had a fairly sharp turn we laid the wire down out in the open and cut a piece to fit. You have a bit more waste and spend more time tying off the ends but when I was working by myself that 100' section was easier to move than the 330' roll.

 

[Bruce]

but when I was working by myself that 100' section was easier to move than the 330' roll.

THAT is an understatement! Even a 100' piece of knotted field fence (or similar) is darn heavy!

 

[newton the goat]

THAT is an understatement! Even a 100' piece of knotted field fence (or similar) is darn heavy!

I agree! Esspecially when its solid cattle fencing only issue with cutting it is we have no way of pulling it taught without a buttload of extra work.thanks for the idea though

 

[Bruce]

If you are running through woods I bet you can find trees to anchor the "odd direction" pulls.

 

[newton the goat]

Its gotten colder rather quickly so we have kinda put putting up the cattle fencing off to the side and have been focusing on the barn. So far we have our holes dug and our posts with rebar drilled into their bottoms cemented into the ground. Next thing is putting up the ribs and wires this weekend!

Its kinda irritating that we didnt have this up earlier and made it a priority but honestly here isnt anything we can do now except work our buts off to get this thing up before the first snow!!

i get the barn isnt too big of a deal and normally i wouldnt be trying to rush progress..... but we have a bit of a dilema. Josie one of my ewes daughters is already at the Waddling not wanting to get up stage of pregnancy.... pictures dont do her justice!! her belly is quite big! so she needs a proper shelter instead of the one we have them in temporarily so she can have more space.

She didnt even budge when i stuck my head into their shelter when typically shes the first one up and running about. I mean shes just as alert as always And eats and drinks like normal. She just doesnt want to run poor girl lol. The rest are getting quites heavy as well but arent as miserable as poor josie .

 

[newton the goat]

Here is how josie stands now i kinda feel bad for laughing but she was attempting to strech in this photo and honestly her expression is hilarious

and her mom is nothing to joke at either. Shes got some size to that belly of hers and were hoping for twins this year since this will be her second lambing

Sara looks just a pretty as always and wears the wool and belly weight nicely and im excited to see her lamb most of all

lily..... has been extrmemly hard to photograph every photo i take makes her look like shes just fat at every angle i try

But her twin sister is hanging low and runnin slow

We are suspecting however that lily and mabels mom for some reason didnt get bred or is really good at hiding it... urgh

last but deffinitly not least is the stud that started it all our beautiful ramseyl boy look how much he has grown!!! Hes so big now

Im proud to say hes still extrememly friendly and still comes to his name! We really lucked out with him

 

[Bruce]

Its kinda irritating that we didnt have this up earlier and made it a priority but honestly here isnt anything we can do now except work our buts off to get this thing up before the first snow!!

If you figure out how to get everything done all at once, the rest of us would love to know how!

 

[newton the goat]

Things have been really busy around here... first of all one 6 of our pigs went off to the butcher.... the boar and one sow decided they were having no part of getting in that metal contraption... so guess whos gonna have piglets in march?


And guess what.... this i my baby brother bryce, he will finally be here dec 30th! Im scared but excited! Never expected to be a big sister at 18.

Speaking of babies.... question is, are my sheep pregnant or fat? i swear i look at them daily and ask myself over and over again and it seems like my opinion changes each time...

I swear i need to stop guessing already, its newtons pregnancy all over again.... check list for next breeding season:
¤ chalk harness for ramesy ¤
Urgh....