rachels.haven's Journal

[farmerjan]

What a complete diversity of colors. Baby goats are cute for the first couple of days......

 

[Bruce]

@Bruce ...why are you up so late? Geez!

Was up late, was up early I fall asleep fast but sometimes when I wake up WAY too early and can't get back to sleep for a half or full hour I get up and read forums for about a half hour, then go back to bed.

 

[rachels.haven]

Thanks! I like them.

And that's what fourms are for!

I got a message from my lamancha bucks' last owner. Apparently they bred the younger yearling brown one (Lucky 4-leaf Count Chocula, lol) to several does and it turns out every single one of them that has kidded already has had serious kidding problems-and now one of the does is dead. And there are still a few left to kid. Apparently he throws kids with big blocky heads and shoulders and she told me to use caution if I breed him. Well, that in addition to his feet that never wanting to behave and must be trimmed weekly is the final nail in the deal. He will be sold at a much lower price than I bought him for with disclosure to someone who wants to take the risk to get more Little Orchard and Barnowl in their herds. Apparently trusting my instincts and not breeding him to anything until I saw what I was getting was a good idea and I will not be losing any does (FF or otherwise) to his genetics. His kids resemble Count's father-large headed and front heavy with weak feet. Oh well. His mom is a 11*milker, and his father is a *Buck but I don't want a herd of does with bad kids or a year of huge shouldered and headed kids. I'm passing up a lot of good dairy genes though. It's a little sad.

I can get another second lamancha buck, but I want to wait for a buckling out of the breeder I got Summer from. I had asked him earlier about a buckling when it looked like Count wasn't going to pan out feet and conformation-wise, but unfortunately this year the only breedings he'd consider herdsire-worthy would be offspring of a half sibling to Summer and he'll let me know next year when he finds and gets a new buck to breed to his sound footed herd.

I also got contacted by the guy who did our fence. He wants to use us as a referral for another goat person, except he cut a bunch of corners and the fence is unraveling by the fence post and he needs to honor his 1 year workmanship guarantee, splice in some wire, and wrap the fence around the post like it's supposed to be (AT LEAST) to keep the fence from falling apart. We told him he could use us as a referral if he fixed up the fence. He sent the person to us for the referral anyway but did not come or set up a time to fix the fence so I didn't get back for about a week, then got back to the lady and said I couldn't yet because he had to come and fix somethings first, and then I'd get back to her and let her know if it could contain goats as it's supposed to be one wall of my megabuck pen and she's wanting the fence guy to make a fence to pen her goats. Hmmm...I'm glad I didn't use it to fence in any goats and just as a barrier for the dog vs/coyotes war. As soon as we had the lady come looking for the referral and no appt for the guy to come out and at least look at if not fix the fence I got the feeling that that would probably be the last I saw of that fence guy. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm thinking I've gotten "New Englanded" again. That house next to my mom in TN is looking better and better.
Bottom line is, Bailey wants her fence fixed! She uses that thing to keep stuff out! Bailey would give a chunky referral at this point.

 

[rachels.haven]

Also, I'm on the hay hunt again. The hay guy I was working with (not my normals) appears to have flaked on me. I've found a feed store with okay priced 2nd cutting and not quite as okay priced alfalfa hay that will deliver by the ton.

 

[Bruce]

Bad news on both Count and the fence guy. I suspect it is a lot harder to get the fence properly tight after it has been cut. Might have to splice in a piece long enough to wrap around the post and then tie back to the existing run.

There is a reason I like to do my research and do things myself rather than trusting the work to "professionals" who are more interested in moving on to the next job than doing quality work. Unfortunately one doesn't always have that option, me included.

 

[rachels.haven]

Yes, nobody wanted to put up a woven wire fence for us. If I'd wanted wrought iron, I could have it, but nobody would continue the conversation once woven wire was on the table. DH has a friend who was a building contractor who mentioned in passing that with the current (past) market contractors here can pick and choose and set whatever price they wanted for whatever job they wanted to do and turn down or ignore the rest. It's hard to even get a painter here. I think I was dealing with fallout from that.

He would indeed need to splice in new fence to fix it. I doubt he will, but maybe I'll be surprised. I offered to let the lady with the referral come and see the fence if she wanted so she doesn't get as messed up as we did if she chooses to go with him. Nobody else does it in the area, so my guess is he will get her business, but maybe she can "help" them do it right.

Aw well.

 

[Bruce]

That is pretty sad. It really isn't all that hard to put up woven wire. Yeah I had to buy some equipment. Bought 2 come-alongs so I could pull high and low. I made fence stretchers with scrap 2x4s and some through bolts, washers and nuts, T post pounder. Already had the post hole digger. That's all the equipment you need though I did also buy a fence hammer and clip bender.

If one has the time the money not paid to the fence contractor would easily pay for the "equipment" with a lot left over plus contractors always add about 100% to the cost of materials, save a ton of money on that as well.

 

[rachels.haven]

I did indeed to that math. The main reason I didn't do it myself was that I have trouble doing things like postholes. I did a lot of heavy manual labor as a kid that I probably shouldn't have and one of the things it left me with was elbows that lock up if I do too many repeats of thrusting a shovel or a post hole digger into the ground over and over again. My husband hates digging post holes so I decided to go the pay a professional route. I could probably figure out the fence stretching with the right equipment and tools, and I may eventually wind up doing it all too. I just have to figure out how to work smarter not harder on those wood posts. Luckily POUNDING posts is an entirely different motion and you don't keep a firm grip on the handles of the driver when it impacts the post.

But how many people can say they've removed a dozen several hundred pound full sized 3-4' cement deck footings from the ground as a teen and got them to the curb, or shoveled and dug endless yards of dirt all summer for years, eh? (want cheap labor? have 6 kids, I guess, as an adult all the work I do is easy compared to what I did as a teen.)

I lost a whiting juvenile to that hawk from last year today. Bailey was in the barn and not on the deck because it was dumping rain. We had a red tail earlier that let itself be clapped away and was leary of the dog, but this smaller one wanted to fight me for it's kill, so of course I chucked a dog dish at it's stupid face, which offended it enough to leave. It didn't get to eat any of the chicken. The whitings are now too big to carry off and string in trees but not as big as the 12 pound pekins (uh... nor will they ever be that big). The silkies stay close to the house and have tons of roosters keeping a lookout-roosters I still plan on eating, but I guess they're useful. I may need to start having things to further throw at the hawk on the porch or poor Bailey's going to lose all her dishes. It's not afraid and rather aggressive with kills and I worry a bit that it will try things with the kids if they try to "save" any chickens. It's also small, but becomes obsessed and apparently you need to threaten it with death by great pyrenees food bowl before it deins to move it's lofty self at all. Also it. keeps. coming. back. for hours. Lots of chasing off occurred today (after the whitings got locked up).

I bet Bailey's going to get the chance to eat that bird someday if/when it kills a chicken in front of her-or if it bothers her kids, I guess. He definitely ISN'T one of hers and doesn't belong. She knows her birds and gets very offended when I add birds and don't tell her about it (yeah, she has to sniff each one, it's funny for everyone but the new birds-like the ducklings and chicks). I won't be handing her any hawk and I hope she does eat it dead while I'm not looking. She even gets offended if wild rabbits get too close to the chickens, so no easter bunny here, I guess.

Several of my baby violets are trying to bloom in their baby cups now. That happened quickly. If the post office and public in general wasn't such a high risk place it would be time to pick what I was keeping and mail off or give away the rest to whoever I could. I guess they'll just have to get bigger and bloomier.

Summer is next up to kid. Day 145 is Sunday and day 150 is Friday so hopefully between those.

 

[Baymule]

My female Great Pyrenees, Paris, hates hawks and has jumped in the air snapping her jaws at them. She is getting old and spends a lot of time in her dog house or in one of the many pits she has dug.

 

[rachels.haven]

Maybe sweet Bay needs a dog house with another pillow bed to stay out of the rain on the elevated deck so she can survey all that is hers even in the rain. Hmm. That deck furniture that came with the house will have to go then. Not enough room.

(Or maybe we can use it as a dining room table since we hate shopping and spending money and don't have one as a result. Also, throwing stuff out here is expensive so double points for bringing it inside. More hmmm....DH isn't going to like that BWAHHAAHAHAHAH.)