rachels.haven's Journal

[farmerjan]

If you can find an older book or some kind of picture or something, I would think that someone who does some metal work... maybe a machine shop or metal fabricating place, could take the design and make you something like that.... and it is "moveable" so not like you will have to leave it behind when you find a place where there are sane sensible people, to move to .......

 

[Baymule]

Haha! Garage barn and you had to go and RUIN it!

 

[rachels.haven]

I know...Poor little man cave...It had to grow up and be a real barn now. But it is MUCH better than an 8x8 shed and a 4x4 goat house, which was what I had before. It's a woman cave now and it's only for me, my dog, and my goaties.

 

[rachels.haven]

One more hundred degree day and then we get a short break.
I was feeding a bucket of alfalfa pellets daily to make up for the first cutting, but in the head Saffron and Summer's wethers started scouring bad so I treated the wethers with a coccidia treatment-they weren't due for it but you never know and I needed it stopped fast. No response, and that was when Saffron started, so I cut the alfalfa and put out baking soda. I also let the kids have all the milk. It's going over 100 and one goat's kids were losing water fast, and so was Saffy, so not bleeding extra water off them seemed to make sense. Lace is a hard headed idiot still, but she is putting it in the pail in excess of what her kid needs and Ava is trickling along as she does so we are still getting a little milk.
Last night Saffron's rump was clean for the first time in two days and the kids appear to have stopped so it looks like heat+alfalfa=runs. Lesson learned. Probably acidosis. Saffron is rejecting the alfalfa pellets in her grain completely now to boot which suggests to me that's right.
We got more hay put in the loft. About 2/3 is out of my garage now. Dh's quality of life is in the toilet right now so I feel bad asking for him to catch and scoot bales for me...although it's probably the most satisfying work he does all day. Doesn't stop the guilt, but whatever. Maybe I'll do none today to make up for last night and the day before.
Lace's scurs have grown to the point they are big enough to be handles. Not long before she pulls them off again, but it sure makes her easier to handle until she does. If the head is controlled, the body has to follow, and it's harder for her to trip you (she's small lamancha size, so it's a hazard) or try to break your fingers in her collar when leading her around. Moron goat. High producing moron goat that is filling my kids' milk cups.
(Grumpy, grumpy, grumble)

On the covid front, Sam's club curbside pickup is working great. The kids may try the school's "robust remote learning plan" bull shirts, but they think they're keeping the kids on devices from 8:55 to 3:15. No way! So we're still looking. And they think they will be phasing more kids into going to school every two weeks. To me that suggests they know it will spread through schools but they want that government cash and to say they are "ahead". Not my kids. I want physically healthy mentally healthy kids (and us adults). We're living for the long haul and not just this year's school federal funding

 

[Bruce]

How old are your boys? I bet they could unhook and shove a few bales even if it took both of them to do it. Tell them it fulfills their school PE requirement.

 

[rachels.haven]

Good idea! And soon! They're 5 and 7. They are light weights and still little weigh less than the hay bales and while they're out of the "I have to preserve them from themselves" phase, they are still in the "getting in the way" rather than the "help a little and get bored" stage, but I've got my sights on them as hay bale pushers as soon as they can. We don't do too many bales at once. They'll be able to do it eventually.

I think my dad started me on solitary work projects (don't stop or come out until X is done, figure it out yourself type things) when I was 8 or 9. I was tall for my age and stubborn though, and my family culture was what it was and the culture of my home is different now. I think I'd rather my kids work more WITH me, come to think of it, and that should lower the working age. They just have to get strong enough. I'm also hoping that my kids doing projects with an adult will help them work better with others than I do and also not do things like ruining a van engine like my brother did when he was "don't go visit friends until you've changed the oil"ed and he didn't get the oil cap on the bottom threaded back on properly (which was hilarious, because after that my dad still insisted that boys were better with cars and refused to teach us girls how to drive manual-but had any of us girls totaled a car and cost him thousands of dollars when there wasn't that much to go around?...NOPE, not even a little bit of totalling of his cars occurred from us girls).

 

[Bruce]

Yep and it may be different now but the cost for me to be on Mom's car insurance (the only car) was like $600/year, sisters didn't cost anything. And who NEVER damaged the car? Hmmmmmm????

OK, so you add a few blocks to the lifting rig for mechanical advantage, yolk up the boys in tandem or side by side and have them haul the bales up to the loft where you unhook and move them to the stack. All they have to do is walk back and forth and connect the hook to the strings on the bales. Even a 5 Y/O can do that.

You're welcome for the super helpful suggestions

 

[rachels.haven]

omg, I had to explain my outburst just now.
Dh takes your tangent and says that if scooting the bales is a problem we should harness them, calibrate the pulley rope length, and have them repel off the barn as a counter weight to lift the bales up to us and have them run up the loft stairs over and over. They get tired, we get the hay.

 

[rachels.haven]

Yeah, us girls were always timid drivers, to the point we couldn't drive with our dad, but I think that was more his issue than ours.
So the dwarfs might be staying.
And I sold a dwarf buck, who is on a payment plan and is only staying until the farrier can pay him off (Bye, Buckeye) so naturally I had to pick up a couple of other guys and here they are so far with their udder history-dam and grand dams.

The black one is Dawnland BF Obsidian (pending) out of Dawnland RR Little Bee by Amethyst Acres Belle-Fiorello *B and the other one is Mye Heart's APR Antonio out of Ole’Humble Acres Annalise by Tiny Angels ApolloPoket Rolex, both are waiting on their papers to go through. Both dams have good deflating udders, good medials, good sized teats and orifices, and everything I look for in a buck meant to continue improving my line towards milk production. I may have trouble drying off their offspring like a standard goat, which is what I hope for-good production, potential for extended lactation, along with good MILKING teats and MILKING udders (but with a good attitude, which is why Buckeye was sold, as he's a blockhead buck that I don't love to handle). Obi, Ant, Patrick, will be my core guys, and they are unrelated. Durango is loosely related to Patrick, but if he can prove himself, any potential inbreeding can be diluted with the other two bucks, leaving me with lots of choices for future breedings. Dur's full brother has improved and given tighter attachment in udders while adding nice, big, thumb length teats that are nice to milk, so I'm willing to wait around on Dur. Plus, he's a stinky, somewhat honry pet. And he's a buck that is NOT over height, which is apparently rare here and he should throw small, light babies, as his line is prone to do.

I decided that I like the massively fatty nigerian milk, everyone else and the cheese can enjoy the lamancha and any extra ND milk.

The flip side of this is that I can do more breeding and cull more heavily and remove dams and kids I don't like, potentially keeping their doelings to see if the sire improved them, but after this year I should be able to be a lot harsher and that includes making herd cuts for TEMPERAMENT.

Ps: I flipped Ava's does, Sugar and Ginger, twice the last time the last few times they did their "you did something I didn't like so I'm going to stalk you around the pen waiting for a good time to bite you" thing. The second time was about a week ago and they haven't tried it since. I figured if someone does it for pack goats, little 40 pound dwarf does should be able to learn too and it looks like they didn't like being overpowered, tipped, and held down on the ground and it's more of a deterrent than nose flicking or spraying when they bite. They don't make my herd cut, but they are redeemable for someone else's. They WILL have manners when they leave. If they don't sell this fall with the covid lack of funds, I may keep a doe kid or two of them if sired by a mild mannered buck for a critical evaluation as they grow out and sell them for more in milk in the spring along with any offspring I don't want to grow out. 40-45 pound goats don't eat too much over the winter.

oh, and the catch with the little new bucks is that they are only a month old and a little undersized, and will probably miss rut...height wise, but they sure are cute as cat sized kids now. I plan to put them over Patrick and Durango's babies that are retained for next year.

 

[Bruce]

Dh takes your tangent and says that if scooting the bales is a problem we should harness them, calibrate the pulley rope length, and have them repel off the barn as a counter weight to lift the bales up to us and have them run up the loft stairs over and over. They get tired, we get the hay.

Perfect! I bet they'd like that more than just pulling the rope to get the hay up.