digging out.

So far, all this week I've accomplished is feeling depressed and searching for things on the internet that might help. Regardless to say, this hasn't been a productive week. I'm happy to just get myself dressed in the morning and feed the kids three squar-ish times a day. We haven't made any decisions about very much of anything. The waiting and not knowing is killing me. I'm a Virgo. I like to have a plan.

Cold frame built from the left over chicken coop roof.

I'm trying to focus on the things we can do. The baby rabbits that should come in a month. A cow is back on the idea board. The wet weather has made it impossible for the draft horse team to come back to plow. My skin is itching to get seeds in the ground. Patience is not my virtue.

Inside the cold frame.

I messed up earlier this week and left the plastic box with all my seeds in it outside overnight and it rained. I woke up to 1/4" of water lining the bottom of the box and seed packets so drenched they disintegrated when I tried to carefully peel them apart. It rained for nearly 15 hours straight. Heavy, fat drops more like a high-pressure bathroom shower than a rain storm. I saved as much as I could, which frankly wasn't very much at all. So perhaps not having the garden ready doesn't really matter as now I have to replace over 150 seed packets before I can even start.

All gone. Sorry, Jessica who gifted me with the "Mystery" seeds and a few others.

The baby goats have a new home we'll be taking them to tomorrow, now to break it to the kids. Today was Farmer's Market day but the roads are flooded out with yet another rain storm.  I'm getting a little tired of all this percipitation when I have very little need of it right now. So, back to forcing myself to be happy in the moment, be grateful for what I have, thankful for what problems I don't.

Hey, maybe we'll get a rainbow later. Who knows?

Things I do have.



No goats.

I just talked to a neighbor that informed me the homeowners association voted against goats. We have to find new homes for Felicity and Buttercup ASAP. If you know anyone in the Gainesville, FL area that would like two beautiful little goats please send them my way.

I'm going to go be sick now.

Busy.

Climbing me looking for dinner.

Friday marked the week's end for us. The kids and I ran into town for goat hay and ten pounds of raw wool. The wool will be cleaned and blended with Angora into roving and yarn. I can't wait to offer it for sale in our Etsy store. Rabbit wool from my own bunnies, Sheep wool from a neighbor raising an endangered breed and a small family mill in my state. I've raised the bunnies from babies. I know the shepherd. I've shook hands with the sheep. I'll drop it off in person; discuss with the owner the best methods and blendings in the spring.

It feels good to support local. It feels even better to be part of the process.

My friend and her family came that night for a weekend visit. I'm not used to hosting overnighters as my previous house wasn't size accomodating. They've bought land just down the street and plan to start a self-sufficient farm like us. Nine kids and four adults somehow fit in for two nights without fighting. The first night, excitement was riding the kids, like the eve before a holiday but so much more because it bounced between them all and back again.

Saturday they awoke with much more energy than the parents, siphoned from some magical place inacessable to grown-ups. I wish I had a tenth of that bottled. I'd be rich. Or at least not quite so tired. After some errands, we started putting up the fence around the pasture. This was built for a horse farm with a beautiful wood slat fence running the perimeter. A beautiful fence that goats would walk right through. My shoulders and arms feel leadened. Tired. Old.

In two days we ran wire fence between the posts, anchoring in between for a little extra goat resisance, pounding in three-quarter inch staples by hand across some two hundred plus feet and four feet up. We'll need another 330 foot roll plus a good chunk of a third before it's ready for the animals. We hadn't even had to sink the posts since the pasture was already there, I can't imagine setting that up from scratch. PX90 has nothing on farm work.

I decided today was the day for breeding the rabbits. At breakfast Duncan got a mate. The weather has been stable with warm days and cool nights. I think the last of the frosts is behind us even if the almanac warns into March. Florida hates the cold and shrugs it off like a thick coat as quick as it can in lieu of flip flops and mosquito repellant. I'm hoping when Flora builds her nest there won't be any question further question of cold. This will be our first litter even though we've owned rabbits for over a year. Today was the first time I thought of kits and had no doubts. Sometimes you have doubts or worries and surge on through, other times you just sit and wait them out.

If all goes well, come May we'll have fluffy white baby rabbits for sale.

The rabbit area and chicken coops got mucked out and spread on the garden. Tomorrow Blake is coming back over to finish the tilling with his horses. I'm trying hard to hide my giddiness behind the stoic expression of something more than a novice. I don't think it's working very well. Then the post pounding starts. More wire will get stretched; rabbit-proof fencing this time. I have sprouts starting green life in yogurt cups, lettuce and strawberries from the farmer's market waiting for more room to spread their roots. Even more seeds are on the way. Tri-colored pole beans, strawberry popcorn and turnips, buckwheat cover crop, white radishes and heritage lettuce. The garden will be a wonderland by June.

Leeloo went off-leash for the first time today. I'm marvelling at how well her training has turned out over the course of just one short week. She sat, she came, she played. Tonight, we went out together off-leash again without a hitch. She's like a new dog. Even if she did gnaw the corner off the guest's sheet. I suppose we can't all be perfect.

Tonight I'm ending on a high note. Yes, I'm tired. Yes, I ache worse than the time I stupidly signed up for a personal trainer at Bally's. The house is a mess and the list of things to do didn't really go down at all regardless of the near endless work of three days. But I'm pleased.

Poor Practice

I've been searching for some older does so we can start milk productions sooner than next spring. I love my little does but the grocery bill needs a break. When I was searching for the two I initially bought in December I came across a dairy farm that had advertised "bottle babies" for $45. After many days of back and forth emails I had decided to come out to the farm which I mentioned in my email and all of a sudden the reply stated that those $45 babies were sold two days ago and now the only ones left were $125 and up.

But I'd love them anyway so come on over. With cash.

I was disappointed in the bait and switch. Why didn't she mention this in all the prior emails? I wrote them off and continued searching. I found a great goat farm just a block over with the same kind of bottle babies at the same price. All wasn't lost. Buttercup and Felicity are happy little kids in our barn.

Well, I realized now that waiting until next spring isn't going to work for us as far as milk production goes, so I am in need of older does that are in milk now or pregnant or can at least be exposed to a buck prior to pick up.

In searching today, I came across the same farm listing does up to 4 years old for sale. So, as I'm often in the habit of doing, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and emailed them telling them what I was looking for. I just got a response.

Apparently, I can buy a doe but I also have to buy at least 1 buck. She now won't sell the does alone which isn't at all in her ad of "does starting at $100". I can buy as many does as I want but I also have to buy a buck. One doe, one buck.

I don't want a buck. I never mentioned buying a buck. I dont' have the facility for a buck. I have kids too young to be exposed to a buck. I don't care how she reassures me (not knowing I don't have the right farm for a buck) that I'll love the bucks and they'll be SUPER great and I better hurry before Sunday because she'll sell them to someone else that's scheduled to come. Oh, and she takes cash, just so I know.

As a begining farmer, I see how this is a terribly poor practice of livestock sales. She gets you hooked with low prices and false promises and then slams you with the catch be it higher prices or multiple animals. This is a large farm, they have a CSA, they've been in business for years. I'm wondering how many people they take advantage of this way. It gives farming a bad name and gives me another dose of learning the lesson of never offering second chances.

Out of the Woods

Felicity (the dark one) has normal droppings today!

Scour

One of the new baby goats, Felicity, has scour. I noticed the runny droppings this morning and ran out to get whatever I could find from the feed store. Natural Goat Care calls for a dolomite/copper sulfate drench and not a single feed store of three stocks either.

I got her an electrolyte drench and somehow managed to get about 7cc's into her. Good Lord that's some nasty smelling stuff. They have a new mineral lick placed in their stall and I'm hoping the drench will get her to a point she's interested in food again. I sprinkled some ProBios on their feed to help stimulate the rumen and put out fresh baking soda.

Cross your fingers all goes well. I have a back up B complex bottle and a syringe at the ready while I hunt down the dolomite and copper. I have a feeling that it's a copper deficiency since she was wormed just last week. Now to go look up how to do intramuscular shots on a caprine. YouTube here I come.

Yeah!

The baby goats are coming home tomorrow morning!

Bye Bye Babies

It's important to know when you've stepped in over your head and need help getting a breath above the water line. After numerous calls back and forth from the goat breeder we both decided the babies would be better off back at their farm with their moms for a few weeks longer.

It's not "good-bye", it's just "see ya later". But I'm still sad over it.

Truth is, Buttercup just wouldn't take the milk. I watched You-Tube videos, looked up multiple bottle feeding techniques and even tried coaxing her to my side with rasins. Nothing worked. She choked and gagged herself on the milk until she was coughing.

That's not good for either of us.

The breeder wasn't milking Buttercup or Westley's mom so reuniting them wouldn't be a loss to them milk-wise. Goats are social beings, keeping the buck alone for weeks wouldn't be good for his sanity. So back they both went. They were both quiet on the few minute drive but as soon as I pulled into the driveway Buttercup started bleating like she was on fire, she knew she was home and mama was close. On the way to the goat pens her mother heard her and added her own mournful cries to the baby's. She jumped through the fence as soon as she was able and started suckling her mom with her tail wagging so hard she was shifting her back legs.

I never knew goats wagged their tails when happy; like a dog. I smiled, knowing I had done the right thing.

Westley was another story. His mama bucked him off the teat and walked away from her crying baby. My heart sank like a rock in a pond. He tried again. And again she knocked him off and this time butted him away. My throat tightened up and I swallowed hard. My mind raced with solutions if she shunned him. Then Westley's twin brother came over to greet him, he had been across the field playing with the other babies. He smelled his brother and latched on to his mama for a snack. Westley grabbed the opportunity and the other teat. Mama sniffed him and my body stiffened waiting for the emminent rejection and then, she let him be.

I waited around to make sure the does would continue to accept their babies. Buttercup seemed glued to her mama's side, strutting around the barnyard pleased as punch. Westley took to exploring seeking his mom for a quick drink whenever the need arose. We talked about the herd I wanted to establish, I checked out a new baby doe and we walked the fields talking goats and soaking up the peacefulness of the beasts.

In a few weeks I'll be able to bring them back home. The breeders invited me to come back as much as I wanted so they remember me and said I could come lend a hand during worming and hoof trimming. There are a few more girls expecting and if the timing works out they'll call me to visit then and see what it's all about.  If I had bought the goats from the dairy farm like I had initially planned I wouldn't have had the resources when bottle feeding didn't work out. I wouldn't have the possibility of hands-on learning as I do now.

There's a lesson here about livestock and farming that I'm glad I've learned. Meet your farmers, befriend them. Lend a hand when you're able and don't let your pride blacken your inexperience or ignorance until you can't see the problems anymore.

Providence and The Princess Bride

Sometimes things that you want desperately in the little crook of your heart to work out just don't. Though there might be reasons for it, all in all it's just the way it's meant to be. It's hard when it comes to pass that whatever it is won't  come to pass. It hurts a little in that organ in your chest.

All week long I've been emailing about some special little babies for our farm. When the gauntlet was falling and purchasing was emminent suddenly the price per animal changed. It rose nearly 200% and shot those babies straight out of my price range. I felt a little used, a little hurt, a little like I was being taken advantage of. I'm a brand spanking new farmer. Still ruddy in the cheeks from birth. I'm just now learning what the upper most tip of farming life is like, even if I've jumped in with both feet.

I left the house this morning wondering if we'd ever be able to start with anything more than chickens and rabbits, dairy heifers are out of our price range, sheep won't be available until late next year. We're not allowed pigs and horses wern't really ever considered. Even the milk goats in our area are now too pricey. My heart was heavy with disappointment.

After I came home I decided not to give up. There had to be someone looking to sell us some healthy baby goats at a reasonable price in my area. I searched Craigslist again and lo and behold an ad from December 6th popped up that I hadn't looked at. For some reason none of my searches pulled up the ad which was for baby goats in my city (which is pretty amazing since the entire town is less than 3 miles wide).  Actually, even more amazing is that they're literally the next block over. Behold Providence. Within hours I had a car load of human kids, feed, milk, hay and two darling baby goats.

They are Nubian/Boer mixes. I met their moms and saw where they lived. The more white  on the left is a four week old doe we named Buttercup and her future boyfriend on the right is 2 week old Westley. The breeder was wonderful and invited me to come back or call if I had any problems or issues or needed advice. I could even bring them back over if they wouldn't take the bottle so they could help me hands on get them to feed.

I'm a little nervous. These are the largest animals we've had so far. They're official livestock, not back yard chickens or fluffy rabbits most people keep for pets. But even under the nervousness and excitement of taking this enormous step, I feel confident the path of the Universe worked itself the way it was supposed to. Even if I had to go through a little bit of rocky travelling.