Little Red Wagon

I will admit something I struggled to admit to myself.  I'm no spring chicken anymore.  I don't have the stamina I had at one time.  I began to notice it most when moving and carrying heaving items combined was next to impossible.  I made it upstairs to the loft THREE times with a bale of straw before I conked out and could no longer go on.  The other day I attempted to muck out a stall and empty the wheelbarrow into the manure pile but was only successful with one trip.  I know my aging body is the culprit and not that I am that old, but my limitations are revealing themselves.  And I'm not happy about it.  I rather enjoyed knowing I could do the work by hand that others would use a piece of machine for. But if I want to continue this job that I love so much, I know that I have to engage the help of some equipment.  Perhaps not big powerful machines, but certainly any that can help relieve my manpower, being it myself or Farm Girl's as I really don't want to see her burn out too early in age either.

So the day that I found taking one more load of bedding to the manure pile would probably kill me, I hit Kijiji looking for what I needed.  And I found it.  Meet my little red wagon.

It's by no means big but it takes the same amount of load as my wheelbarrow but can be hauled away by our lawnmower.

And it even dumps. Yes, we still need to muck out the stalls manually but it really was the hauling the full wheelbarrow over to the manure pile that nearly killed me.  And when you are mucking out deep bedding, believe me, that is a lot of walking. Some of those loads weighed well over 200lbs.

Easter Eggs

The egg workers are back on the job.  Yay, maybe I'll have enough eggs to make an angel cake this weekend for Easter.

Superman

Remember the post where I was astonished we bought a huge hay feeder and was able to deliver it home in the back of the pickup truck?

Well getting it home was one thing, getting it off the truck and setup in the pasture was another thing.  We did manage to get it off the truck but then it sat in the same spot for the past week until finally my husband got a day off and we had a small break in lambing to finally move it into the miniature pasture.  That was no small task.  We don't have a tractor and had to move it with the aid of our truck and my husband's superman strength.    But there it is, at last, sitting in the miniature pasture.

New Flock

I have two stories to tell you.  About a week ago, we noticed that in the goat pen, Holly our pygmy goat and only horned female goat, used her horns on the newborn dairy kids so even though I didn't want to, we moved her and Storm out of the goat pen.  So they didn't feel alone, we brought Thunder in to keep them company.  I think he gave Holly a sense of security but poor little Storm became subdue and not as playful.  I think she missed her little friends.

My second story takes us back to last fall when I was downsizing my miniature horses.  I rehomed our little miniature colt, Tex, to a man who lived on a little piece of land along the shoreline of the tourist town my husband works in.  It wasn't an ideal setup but he had an assortment of animals and was a popular spot for vacationers to bring their children to visit his petting zoo.  I think the animals also gave him company.  Anyway, yesterday, we saw an upsetting ad from this man because one of his neighbours complained to animal control about a couple of his goats escaping his little pen and eating their shrubs.  Turns out his little property was not zoned for agriculture so he was ordered to get rid of all the animals.  So I immediately contacted him and inquired about Tex which he informed me that he had lots of interest in him and all sounded like much better homes than the one this man could provide.

I was relieved to hear this as poor "little" Tex wasn't so little any more. As we got to talking, he informed me about his little flock of pygmy goats.  In my opinion, he had far too many bucks living together along with a family of females that I would not have deemed safe particular with young children visiting his petting zoo. I immediately offered to take the females as one had two young kids at her side.  They would provide Storm with company once again.

At first I was only going to take the mother and her kids, but then I got one good look at this little beauty and had to have her as well.
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So now I am the proud owner of a flock of pygmy goats.  And Storm is her flying, bouning and jolly self once again.

Too Cute!

Loved this series of photos I took this morning of one of the baby goats challenging Dodge, the ram while his mamma was being milked but discovered our ram is a big softy where babies are concerned.

Bigger

I mentioned in an earlier post that we built a temporary pen in the wood shed/chicken coop for sick animals, new animals, and at the time of my posting, Durango the ram moved into it as we thought we'd hold off on breeding until May.  Well that did not last long as Durango promptly leaped over the gate and sauntered on back to the barn, so we moved the Pygmies into it instead and the three of them seemed perfectly happy.  Then yesterday we bought four non-shedding ewes and six of their lambs so the Pygmies got the boot back into the barn and my new-to-the-farm livestock pen tripled in size.

These mammas are way bigger than any of my sheep.

Their quarantine pen had to be big enough to keep them comfortable and well vented until they are able to join the flock.

Farm Fresh

First egg of the year.

And the milk supply is overflowing.

Fools

I don't know who's the bigger fool, me or my hubs.  I saw this hay feeder for sale online and thought it would be perfect for the horses so we went down to look at it and my reaction was that it was way too big to take home on the pickup truck.  But once my hubs seen it, he just had to have it.  The farmer we bought it from insisted we could not only get it on the pickup but take it home no problem.  Ha.  Relying entirely on this farmer's judgement, I allowed him to load it on the back of our pickup truck with his tractor.  That should have been a big clue right there.  If he needed a tractor to load it, how the heck would we ever unload it on our farm?  We don't own a tractor.  But as I said, hubs really wanted it and when hubs gets something in his head that he isn't leaving without an item he really wants, he will do anything to make it happen.  So on went the hay feeder onto our truck and believe it or not, we actually got it home.

It was well after dark when we actually unloaded it off the truck however.  It took all our imagination and muscle to get the job done.  Well almost done.  Hubs thought it would "cushion" the fall off the pickup by placing some hay bales underneath.  But that only meant it's now stuck sitting on top of the hay bales.  Oh well, at least it is off the truck.  I'm going to have to come up with some creative thinking to get it from the hay bale, to it's destination in the horse's pasture.

Got Milk?

I've got milk from my own farm in the fridge!  Goal met after only three years of trying!

Back to Auction

After we sold most of our fall lambs yesterday at the livestock Easter sale, I went out and purchased a $6.00 50lb fish weight scale, hung it over the stall door and weighed the three remaining lambs we thought were too small.  Turns out all 3 of them topped the 50lb max, so we loaded the remaining three lambs up and took them to the sale barn.

It only took dog crates to transport them which was far easier then the livestock box, plus I had the hubs to help.  Two of the lambs were not tagged so Farm Girl got the chance to tag their ears for the first time.

Today's sale barn was not the same one we went to yesterday as that sale is done and over with there, but instead we drove to the bigger sales barn an hour north of us.  This sales barn has more producers and more buyers.  We are hoping to get a better dollar for our lambs, but it is all a learning curve for us as we are trying to figure out which sales barn is the better market and which one will give us a better return on our stock.

This barn did a better job of convincing us they were the better choice.  The owner came out and pitched what they could offer us, provided some helpful tips in lamb weights and markets, and will even host conferences now and then.  They even gave us a free hat and key chain.

The only down side of course is the hour's drive.  Hauling only dog crates today was not a huge expense, but certainly hauling a trailer full of lambs will burn threw gas quickly.  But if the dollar is right, then it may be worth the drive.  Besides, it also gives us some valuable family time.

Me and my business partners, aka my amazing family.

Milking Day!

At long last, milking day has arrived!  We bought our milking goats back in October supposedly "in milk" but it turned out their milk was sour and had gone bad.  So we rebred them, had the pleasure of watching kids being born, enjoyed playing with said kids, waited for recommended time lapse after deworming and at last, we milked that big beautiful udder.

Auction Day

Well today was my first livestock auction sale.  We didn't have many lambs but it was worth the experience.  Last night, me and the hubs tagged up the ears which turned out to be easier then I thought.

It was a first for us and I had no idea how difficult or not it would be, turns out it was very easy, but definitely a two-person job.  Hubs had to work today so it was just me and Farm Girl delivering the animals to the barn.  We elected to use the livestock box for the pickup rather than the trailer.  We only took six lambs and two older ewes so it seemed a waste of gas to lug the trailer.  Also, I'm not very good at backing a trailer up and I knew I would have to back up to unload.

That was all fine and dandy however I forgot how hard it is to get heavy lambs and sheep up into the livestock box.  There is no ramp so we literally had to take one sheep at a time from the pen and "walk" them to the truck. This was interesting...and rather funny.  They were too heavy to carry so by accident we discovered that they could actually walk on their hind legs if we held up their front legs.  It took both of us on either front leg, but we got them to the truck and then heaved them onto the tailgate and into the livestock box.  Believe me, it was exhausting.

But, thankfully, it was also the only strenuous part of the day.  The rest went smoothly.  Our drive was only about 15 minutes away from the sale barn and once we reached there, we were a little confused on where to go and what to do but once we got that figured out, we unloaded the sheep rather easily.  The most confusing part was when Farm Girl and I got separated when she followed the lambs into the barns and I headed off to the office.  It was like a maze in there, coming across small corridors and multiple doors.  At one point we spotted each other over several pens but could not find a clear path to one another.  Another time I was up on the catwalk looking down and we spotted each other once again.  We finally met up and to our surprise that was the end of our day at the livestock auction.  I anticipated a long day but to our delight we were informed that once the sheep were sold they would send us a cheque, no waiting around.  So we went into the city and did a little bit of shopping instead since I had told those at home I wouldn't be back until late.  All in all, my first experience at the livestock auction went well.

My lot is in the enclosed pen on the right.

Here's Hoping

Warmer weather is here, days are longer, nights are shorter and my chickens are "thinking" about providing me with eggs once again after a long harsh winter.

Spring Day

What I did on this beautiful spring day.  Built a temporary shelter for one of my rams, Dodge, as the new ewes are getting closer to lambing and we'll need the extra leg space so the boys are moving out of the barn.

We built another temporary shelter in the wood shed/chicken coop.

It will be the temporary stop for new animals on the farm, sick animals, and for now, Durango's temporary digs.

It was such a beautiful spring day, we hated that none of the goats or sheep could come out to enjoy it.  So we brought some of the baby goat kids out to play instead.

Of course it didn't take long for us to realize neither mom or babe were comfortable with that scenario, so Farm Girl went back and retrieved a mom.

That worked.  All were happy bouncing little goats.

Who loved discovering their "goatness".

After they finished playing and returned to the barn and their pen, we tackled another project.  I wanted to refurbish an old hay feeder for the horses outside. With the mud season upon us, and having destroyed the feeder I had placed in the pasture prior to winter, I needed something that would get the hay off the ground.  Looking around at what I had on the property, I came across the old feeder.  The sheep had pulled off 80% of the badly welded bars on the feeder.

So I used some left over fencing and wrapped it around the remaining bars on the feeder.

It's sitting in the old chewed up feeder the horses destroyed over winter until we can get it staked to the ground.

It has been so nice lately that I have my fingers crossed for an early spring.  Maybe, just maybe we'll get the animals out to pasture before May.

Well Hello There

I have discovered that baby goats are the friendliest creatures on earth.

Last Baby

Our last kid goat was born this morning.  We did not witness the birth or believe she was due any day.  Martha, the mother, is one of those doe's who goes against everything you've ever heard or read.  Nevertheless she delivered a big healthy little buck all on her own.

Sadly, this is the last of the goat kids until next year, and the last of all babies born in the barn until April when the new ewes begin lambing.  Oh wait, it's already April.  The fun continues.