rachels.haven's Journal

[Baymule]

Congrats on the triplet does, getting your kid off the honking bus and dragging your 4 year old down the driveway while having a tantrum. A very special congrats on presenting your Bad Mom side to your neighbor while covered in goat birth juice. Way to go!

 

[rachels.haven]

Well, Olivia, that doe in question tried to climb through the fence to be bred by one of my bucks today, so no kids from her this week. She's now bred. Angel is also bred. Both are listed. I'm hoping that will help them go to better, milking homes, separately if possible. A toss up in the pecking order would probably change my adult nurser's habit. Angel claims Olivia as her daughter, which made Angel head doe before Saffron the standard came to town. Olivia has nursed for a very, very, very long time on Angel and tries to go for everyone else (cue the Saffron SMASH, but Avalon let her). Livy acts like a dam raised brat in the worst way, and a high pecking order one too. If they were split up, and Olivia fell to a low ranking doe, where she winds up without Angel around, I get the feeling that would nix the behavior and obviously the nursing. So listing it is. I'm telling myself this is for the best because all of Avalon's does are staying.

We finished our License to Carry applications. Now we get to wait 8-10 weeks according to the guy who did it. Then we can go pick them up. Nope, getting a gun takes a good long time here. Sure is good I've been able to go underground and find people who I can hire to shoot it if I had a real problem. Fish and Wildlife has disappointed me.

The lady who has an orchard up the hill has dozens of coyotes on site. She tells people to make noise as they walk around so they don't cause trouble for people. After talking to her, I'm pretty sure we're just getting the one rejected xL one that needs to die and her many acre property holds the rest. Also, I may look into getting Bailey a backup buddy so she or any goat doesn't get killed when they do pack up this (or next) winter. I probably already mentioned this, but now I'm serious.

It's also time to add another two segments onto the chicken's aviary run. I think I'll do it home depot delivery order this time because taking the kids and collecting materials was crazy. It may not cost too much and they will also deliver stuff that my HD is out of (because I bought all the hardware cloth and they have no PT 6' 2x4s).

 

[rachels.haven]

We also discovered that there are tax incentives for having permanent grazing pastures and selling $500 worth of farm stuff per year (after the first 3 years of doing it), so I may eventually get my perimeter fence and fenced in wooded goat pastures. Our taxes are ridiculously high currently-it's like paying rent. Plus, the more walkable and open our woods are, especially with my canine farm hands marking and guarding, the fewer coyotes we'll have coming through. And my kids will have a harder time getting lost or wandering off.

And the goats will be able to eat more for free. That time is fast ending though. Our leaves have begun turning.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Our leaves have begun turning.

Here in western Arkansas, we have some leaves turning, but not from chill, but from heat and lack of rain!

Congratulations on the triplets. That story of your goat birth, the bus driver, the neighbor, etc., was so funny! I am glad you were able to laugh about it and shared it with us!

Sounds like you are getting your place together, what with your new dog, and updating your pens, and pasture. I am happy for you!

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

Congrats on the doelings. How is Bailey acting around the new kids?

 

[rachels.haven]

Thanks @Senile_Texas_Aggie and @Bruce . She wants to check them out and was getting nervous when they would cry for a while. For now she's fenced out with the rest of the does, and is sleeping against the shared wall with them. I think their intro is going to upset Avalon. She doesn't even want those babies leaving the stall.

Odd thing, despite Olivia wanting to climb in bed with my bucks this morning complete with being loud calling for them and them complying and having a happy, willing one day stand all day long, she almost seems to be a little softer in the ligament area tonight. I was having trouble finding them. But I'm not sure yet. If I touch her when she's not in the mood she tenses every muscle in her body and tries to tap dance away no matter where she's at and she was definitely not in the mood to be touched tonight so I guess we'll see. No udder filling whatsoever but where did her ligaments go? That does not make sense.

 

[rachels.haven]

No more babies, btw. The 11th is day 150, but I'm 99% sure she was just in heat.

Bailey has a vet as of Friday. I forgot to update. They are a husband and wife pair that used to breed rotties. They came out to the house, had a ten minute appointment in which she finished her shots, had a blood draw and a snap heartworm test, I got handed her HW preventative, paid the bill, and they said "see you next year". She's not aggressive, doesn't need drugs, and other than my house being messy because I didn't realized they'd come IN to see the outside dog, everything was fine. Done.

There were gunshots outside tonight. Considering how many of my neighbors want him dead, I wonder if the giant coyote is still alive now? The only thing that's in season right now is bears, and I'm not convinced there are more than a few of those.

Might have woken up very early and driven an hour and a half to check out this guy...

...and his brother...

...and his Komondor mom and Pyrenees dad and an adult puppy komondor male, all working to keep chickens, goats, and tiny alpacas safe in the big woods of New Hampshire (side note, we also went to the Franklin Pierce house museum in a whim before the morning was over because it was there).
One puppy we met wanted to go wander off. The other stayed with us and laid down. We decided the stayer is coming home with us in a few weeks to be trained when he's ready. The wanderer was prettier with an opal colored coat, but the other matches us and Bailey better. I'm very much looking forward to Mr. Puppy coming home and growing up here. I also discovered that my kids are afraid of puppies because they are not Bailey. A strange dog is a strange dog, I guess.

We also talked more about our plans to fence everything. Free ranging chickens and children would sure be nice.

DH is going out of town for a week in a business trip (not very happy about the workload his work piled on him last week "because" he was going out of town, as if it wasn't for them at their request). Since free ranging chickens isn't an option yet, I think I'll take this opportunity to put up another cube or two on my chicken run-half height this time. 8' walls are too hard to do much with, especially alone. 4' high should be better. They'd better not send him out of town too often or I might build a whole other coop next time.

AC season is officially over here, btw. The chill is back.

 

[farmerjan]

Wow, from never having an LGD, to getting an adult, to finding her a vet that sounds pretty decent, to taking on a second LGD all in the matter of ...what .... 2 months????? Sounds like you are pretty sold on LGD's as part of the protection detail.... Hopefully the puppy will learn from Bailey for the protection end of it.....

So glad that the vet (s) were so very matter of fact and got the whole thing done with no muss or fuss or problems. I guess now you got an experience at the "other end of the spectrum" with a "farm dog vet"... That's great.

 

[rachels.haven]

Thank you. We really love the dog(s) as part of the farm and not just a house pet. Itjust feels right. There's also something special about their temperament that I can't put my finger on. They contribute to the calm and not the insanity. Lots of learning going on still.

There is some method to our madness as well. We are trying to minimize the risk to our current dog. We spoke to a few different neighbors and I realized that if I'm going to live in "peace" with the wildlife that no one here wants to control, for the safety of me, my kids, and my animals I'd better get big dog friends. We still don't have a Barker. Our girl has only serious barked 2x to date. Her way to keep things safe at night, assuming they don't follow her in is to poke the goats with her nose until they are all in the barn and hides with them so I feel like she would benefit from a team mate. I also want to minimize the chance we DO have to use our gun. The local human wildlife may try to antagonize things. The sane locals that spend time outside really have to keep the measures they take to stay safe while outside hidden and keep them VERY quiet and two dogs might be a quieter, better way for us than shooting things off at 10 pm in the dark. I also really love how they watch for things even when I'm not able to (when not at the barn pen). If push came to shove, Bailey could defend them in the field. That all is a HUGE burden off my shoulders.

Getting stalked to my door in the dark and being howled at from right outside was a real turning point here. I guess we took our yard back. We're still expecting someone to get bit by a coyote in the next few years, but I don't want it to be one of us. So rabies shots to all the dogs and we'll keep working on the perimeter fence details!

Btw, if we wind up needing more than two dogs, we may move instead, because that's nuts. We're only two miles from "town center" and "thickly settled" zones.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

I am SO HAPPY for you and your family, Miss @rachels.haven! Everything seems to be working out well. Miss @B&B Happy goats's "mama bear" side coming out was a good thing -- it helped you to see you needed to do something, and by golly you did it! With Bailey and soon the puppy coming, you should have plenty of four legged protection. Now you should be able to sleep well at night!