Clementine Finds Her Moo

It was another beautiful spring day at the farm today. Not so warm it was 32 this morning with a good frost. The pollen is awful. Didn't hear what the count is but everything is yellow. I shut the horses out of the new grass last night in case it was a killing frost, didn't want any tummy aches. They were waiting for me most impatiently this morning.
When I went in to give Clementine (the calf) her bottle the horses watched at the gate. Clementine got brave and went over to visit. Velvet my 3yo filly loves everything and everybody so she put her nose down to calf level. She quickly got a calf tongue up her nose. Velvet was quite insulted, she snorted and turned her butt to us.

I have a pregnant goat in the same barn with Clementine she is as wide as she is long but still no kids. I let her out of her pen today so she could stretch her legs and lay in the sun. I have never really been around cows much. I didn't realize that they have personality. I have a pan of dry food out for Clementine so she will get used to it. She isn't eating much of it yet but she will nibble on it, the same with the pile of hay that is out.
The goat isn't too happy about the calf especially since she was chasing her and wanting to play. Heart(goat) went straight to the pan of food and started to eat, Clementine came and stood over the pan and snorted. Heart moved to the hay, Clementine went to the hay and stood over it. Poor Heart gave up and went back to her pen and wanted back in.

When I started to leave to finish my farm chores for the morning Clementine followed me kicking and bucking all the way. She went round and round my legs like a big ole cat and let out a small moo. She was so suprised at her new sound that she ran and hid.

I sure wish my camera was working. She is so cute and funny. Her milk beard after her bottle is the cutest, that is until she wipes it on you.

Spring walk on the farm

Saving Clementine

Tims uncles have cattle and lost one to grass tetany. They didn't realize until 2 days later that she had a calf. Tim went out to see if he could catch it. If it was a bull calf we intended to feed him out. It wasn't. It was a hefer calf about 2wks old that had lain in the hot sun waiting for her mom to come back. She was lethargic and easy to catch. I have never bottle raised a calf. I have lots of experience with goats and if a kid laid out and over heated like that it would be hard to save. I rushed to the feed store to get a bottle and some milk thinking all the time I wouldn't be able to get the poor thing to drink and we would end up having to put her down. We put her in the barn next to a doe whos kidding is iminent. When I got back with the milk she was standing up so I put the nipple in her mouth and she started to nurse. How easy was that! Once I looked at that sweet feminine face with those long lashes and big brown eyes I knew she would never be beef and the name Clementine came to my mind. So we now have added a black angus hefer to our list of dependents.

We had an invitation to go to an old dump and dig for bottles today. We decide it would be a change of pace and I love old bottles so we went. It is on power co land and way back in the woods so not picked over if you dig. We had a blast. An older gentleman went with us and knew what alot of the bottles were. Kind of interesting to see all of those old condiment bottles. We found lots of medicine bottles. Most of the bottles we found were pre 1930 and quite nice. Now I just have to get them all cleaned up.

I decided, when we got back from hunting bottles, that it was time to get the wooly booger cleaned up. He is so hot and it was over 80 degrees today. Bounty is a Gypsy Vanner and like all of them he has lots of hair. He will be one year on April 30th. He wasn't too happy about the water until he found out it was cool and then he couldn't get enough. He stood like a gentleman while I shampooed and conditioned his copious locks. He got all braided and clean. I bet by tomorrow he will have his poop stains back on .

I can't get pictures of all of this because I dropped my camera and the husband ran over it with his truck.So needless to say I need a new camera. I will put a couple of dirty pictures of Bounty that I took before the camera accident.

Spring

Enjoyed a beautiful pre-spring day at the farm today. Took a walk and lots of pictures. All of my fruit trees are blooming. This could be bad as it is still early. I hope not.

After all of the rain we had yesterday the air was clean and the sky a bright blue. I turned the horses out in the back pasture for the first time since fall. I couldn't leave them long because the lush new grass is only good in small doses if they are not used to it. They were happy till I had to pull them back off.

The goats were all happily snoozing in the sun and chewing their cud.

I was happy until I returned to the house. Tim went to the basement and discovered that our freezer had quit. Probably over a week ago. What a mess! A big stinky mess.We lost several hundred dollars worth of deer meat and what was left of last years vegetables. I have been wanting to learn to can meat and this just reinforces my resolve. If I had canned some of that deer meat we would not have lost it all.

GOATS FOR SALE

I recently place an add to sell the three remaining nubian bucklings. I made the price high enough that it should have discouraged people who want a Bar-B-Q goat from calling. I am not against eating goat don't get me wrong, but these little guys are so beautiful with their spots I hate to think of it. I hate to think of it with any of them, although I know that is the only other purpose(besides the obvious) for them.I have sold one (my favorite) to become a future herd boss.

He is so sweet. He will be like his dad MoMo who is a big stinky pet you can lead around on a leash.

I have a couple of folks coming out this weekend to look and I am pretty sure they are looking for a slaughter goat. Their first questions is how big is it. I explained to one this morning that 60lbs of Nubian isn't the same as 60lbs of Boer you get more bone less meat(doing myself out of a sale).They are coming to look anyway.I really need to sell the little fellows. I only need the 2 bucks I have. It is a whole lot easier to drop them at the sale and have them send me a check in the mail. I am sure the end result is the same.

Wordless Wednesday

TAXES

I remember when doing my taxes was easy. Fill out a simple form and mail it in. Not any more. Until the last few years I have not dreaded it like I have the last couple. In simplifying my life I have complicated my taxes. We have steadily tried to eliminate debt. No more borrowing for what we need and paying off what we owe. Good plan right?? I thought so till I went to the tax man last year. YIKES!!! This year double YIKES!!!!

We really love this beautiful piece of property. It supports us and we have paid it down to a reasonable amount. We hope to have it paid off before retirement(It is our retirement). If Uncle Sam doesn't get it all. Because we are getting out of debt we are not able to take off any intrest we are paying. We cannot claim new equipment because we are fixing the old. So instead of paying the banks we are having to pay Taxes. Pay the Govt. or pay the bank. HMMM which is better..or worse.

Well "kiss my...donkey" I guess I'll just have to pay the government cause I don't want to pay the bank.

I LOVE BABY GOATS

I just love baby goats! That is the real reason I have them. We have had up to 80 in the herd when we had all Boer goats.

This one is a Boer/Nubian cross. We have sold off most of our fb boer as the south is a challenging place to keep goats and the boers didn't seem to have any natural resistance to parasites. We spent all of our time worming and checking for worms.I had them for 7 years with alot of heartbreaking loss. We started crossing with a Spotted Nubian buck we bought and the resulting crosses seem to have better resistance.

We also have one Oberhasli doe we named Idjit. Any one who has ever had these goats knows why. Boers and Nubians don't ever look for mischief but Idjit does.This is one of this yrs.kids it is an Ober/nubian There are 2 identical dodoelings and they are just like their mom. Always looking for mischief. The Oberhasli has been our most carefree goat. I hope her doelings are as I am keeping both.

We ended up with 2 spotted nubian bucklings this year.Why is it the prettiest goatlings are the bucks.We are down to 6 adult does,3 yearling does,and I am keeping 3 doelings this year. We also have 2 bucks 1 registered spotted nubian and 1 boer.