rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

Maybe they like it when they stand on the lake beach and as the swan gets closer and closer it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger until they're shorter than the bird as it stares them down with that aggressive arched neck posture then walks STRAIGHT at them and puts out it's wings and you realize that if you don't run you're going to have to duke it out with a lake ornament...no, it's more likely they like swans in pictures. Pictures are SAFE. They like the idea of swans, coyotes, moose, mountain lions. The swans is the dumbest one yet. I'm pretty sure the ones brought over from europe were probably domesticated ones. That makes them about as "natural" and "native" as geese from a hatchery catalog. Protecting them is ludacris. Self defeating, destructive ludacris.

 

[CntryBoy777]

We sure don't need That to turn into a pandemic.....best to quarentine em to be on the Safe side......

 

[Bruce]

puts out it's wings and you realize that if you don't run you're going to have to duke it out with a lake ornament

With a SEVEN foot wingspan! Most anyone would feel pretty small "face to bird" with that. Best to practice "social distancing" with them

 

[rachels.haven]

I planted a Shenandoah and Potomac pawpaw today. I also copper bolused all the goats. A bolus is lasting less than 4 months. Hopefully the filter I put on the hose helps with the sulfur and helps this bolus last longer.

Rabies shots for the goats, strawberry and raspberry bed, and this is on the schedule for tomorrow. My family NEEDS fresh cheese.

Tonight ALL the babies will go into a dry, private stall with hay and grain and the moms will get a break (and the babies will get a break from the doe herd politics).

10 days until Lace the Lamancha's day 145. I will be relieved when her baby is on the ground and she is not pregnant anymore and all the does are done.

 

[rachels.haven]

Check! I didn't wind it, and I'm going to tweak the recipe so it's less acidic, but here's our cheese.
The raspberries and strawberries also got put in after I built a pen for them so they wouldn't fight with the chickens. I also planted one of the fig cuttings I started in my lab from someone's fall pruning. I accidently let it mature in the cup and grow mini figs. That might be worth a picture later.
That over achieving cutting's friends are working on catching up on the deck and will be planted later.
...so much to do!

 

[rachels.haven]

Picture did not stick. Piece on plate is proof that it melts.

 

[rachels.haven]

Up to a gallon and a quart of milk today after nightly separation. Ava's milk is the quart and it goes down the drain because of antibiotics, but even she is trucking along (and one of last year's doelings had to spend the night with the babies for us to get much, if course). The family is drinking about half a gallon/day and the rest goes towards cheese and yogurt.

Yikes, the internet is not a super friendly place lately. I popped over to the "other" forums for goat specifically to read what was going on as I sometimes to and popped right back out again. Yep, forums can be eternal september for habitual readers, but, yikes, I didn't expect to see newbie eating going on. It's kind of grouchy and mean out there. Maybe I'll go read them again after this whole quarantine thing stops. I don't think avoiding others is good for people's mental health. It would sure be nice if they didn't "spread the love" and perpetuate the stress they are feeling onto people from a distance who don't deserve it like that. It discourages people from asking the questions required to reach for their dreams. At least let them a chance to give it a good shake even if they are going to quit. I really appreciate that this forum is fairly patient. Everybody starts out asking the same "stupid" questions, over and over again. Facebook is being nasty too. Animal rights people are running rampant on groups. Suddenly every video of any animal is animal abuse according to the general populous . I may just pop off the internet for a while.

And as a final note, Yay for the human feed store, Sam's Club, and TSC Curb Pickup (and also Farmer's Exchange Curb Pickup, that I probably use more than tsc, but tsc carries the alfalfa pellets I use and other random stuff the Exchange doesn't so we use all 3). Yay for curbside pickup. (Based on what I saw leaving the club doors while we waited for our order to come out, they might be out of all forms of alcohol for consumption and maybe THAT'S why the internet's so mean lately...). They're probably also still out of hand sanitizer and sterilizing alcohol too for all I know, but I'm pretty sure that went a lot earlier. But flour they have, and I think they have most paper products excluding TP. No bread either. Might actually have to go into a store for that. But they do have pasta, frozen kid food, fruit, flour...all the staples of a non-varied diet of small children who eat ridiculous amounts for their size (45 pound kids, I feel like they eat about 25 pounds of food daily and stay all boney).

Oh, and a friend of mine is fleeing the state for a not so "great" in the corona virus rankings location and also a small family wedding, so we are now watching a 15 year old cockatiel for 2 months or so...so I guess we're the temporary owners of an indoor squeaky chicken, who is also fairly grumpy today. No keyboard and booze for you, Mr. Squeaky Indoor Chicken or whatever your name is.

 

[CntryBoy777]

No need to leave and punish us for something some "chicken littles" do.....maybe just remove their "bowline" and let em drift away...ya have enough to deal with, dealing with the laws and property "restrictions"....and your little indoor "buddy"....

 

[rachels.haven]

They definitely might contract it on the way and hand it out to family when they're there-plus there's no guarantee leaving will actually help. No, we're not going anywhere! Our lockdown situation is too good here.

I don't think the cockatiel with be no issue as far as I can tell. He likes his cage, and he's an older one, so I'll rock the boat as little as possible. I just have to keep the kids from trying to feed him everything like they would for a chicken. It's so funny. The bird tries to bite them so they got and stuck the end of a celery stalk in its tiny angry mouth. Feeding it sausage got nixed. No apples, no grass, no outside leaves. I'm buying a tiny bag or two of $5-8 "premium" cockatiel diet that comes stuck together in balls and sticks like cookies and granola bars with dried fruit in it and I'm going to tell the kids those are treats. It's balanced, so it should do minimal harm to add to his normal diet. Unlike sausage and cheese stick (beach ball cockatiel, anyone?).

unfortunately, while getting the mail today I noticed Ava's bucklings were frantically chasing all the other does around. I kept watch for a while and Ava did not feed them once the whole afternoon and just ran around the pen constantly avoiding them and kicking them off while stressing out and tossing her head as she does when offended. So at evening feeding I got a lambar nipple and bottle, warmed some milk, and conducted the bottle test. Most happy dam raised kids will shun the nipple, especially the big lambar ones without extra incentives and work. These guys started chugging like they'd never seen a teat in their lives. And their bellies were empty. So she's still not feeding them well. So I've got me 3 bottle bucklings then. Next time I think I will just pull Ava's babies from the start. These look a little small for 3-4 weeks this has probably been going on for a while, and the last ones wound up a little small too, especially the one she chose to reject the most.
Aw well, I guess as a bright side if they are bottle babies they can go to new homes earlier and getting nice pictures will be easier and we've got plenty of milk.
3x6 oz feedings, at 8,2,8 o'clocks. I might put together my lambar when they get out of the starvation stage. They were definitely feisty enough for it today, but I'd also like to avoid beach ball goat kids too. Milking time is 8 and 8, so I guess I just have to visit at lunch. Not too bad.

 

[rachels.haven]

Rosasharn WS Sir Patrick x Mustang Meadows H Avalon buckling

Bad shadows! Also, his rump is bunched up still. Taking pictures by yourself is difficult.

This guy is the most sure on the bottle and the roughest on mom. He also eats a lot for his size. I tortured Ava by stalling her with the other two kids for about three minutes on four different occasions today so they could drain her out and get full because their bottle skills were not so great today when they weren't AS hungry. The white/fawn one was on the bottle full time.