Where Are You Spring?

Well, winter was long. And cold. And snowy. And still here. This photo was taken this morning.

We had more snow at Easter than we did at Christmas. But in all fairness, we did have a nice mild break in March. But it was just a teaser. Made us yearn for green grass and gravel driveways. But alas, April provided us with a famous late winter blast. Hopefully this will be the end. Warmer weather is bound to be just around the corner. Oh please, let warmer weather just be around the corner! My heating bills just can't tolerate it any longer. I want to spend hundreds of dollars on livestock, not oil! Or wood. We heated the house over winter mainly on wood but did have to fill the oil tank twice and are waiting on another fill as I type. When temps got below -20C, and I wasn't home to feed the fire, than I had no other choice but to buy oil. Which really spoiled me. Blessed warm heat with no labour involved!! I can officially say I'm sick of stacking wood. 

Speaking of livestock. We sold the pigs. Yay! We never ended up butchering them for ourselves. We had every intention, but both finances and means really didn't necessitate the cost. There would have been far too much meat left over that would never had gotten eaten and when you balance the cost of slaughtering and smoking and cutting, it just didn't pan out for us. So we sold them instead and chalked them up to experience.

One of our ewes had twins that were born stillborn just before Christmas. That was very upsetting. Both me and Farm Girl were at work and missed the birth. Not that I can guarantee we could have done anything to help, but it was another lesson we learned. Putting time aside for our livestock. But, in the new year, another ewe gave birth to a big healthy girl. That lived! Yay! First lamb born on the farm and to me since my separation.

But one lamb wasn't enough. I wanted more. Farm Girl kept texting me photos of lambs born at work and I was jealous. Especially when she texted me a photo of a set of quadruplets. I texted back and joked she buy a female off them. Having those genetics would be an awesome addition to our flock. Of course she laughed and said there would be no way, but lo and behold, I found an add for 3 bottle lambs that came from a set of quintuplets! I texted immediately and was successful in purchasing them (she had a LOT of interest).

Two ewes and one ram which we plan to raise for breeding. We love them and enjoy bottle feeding them so much that Farm Boy declared he wanted some bottle goat kids of his own to raise. So guess what? We now have two adorable little newborn bucks in the barn.  Man, I love babies!

Farm Boy then decided he wanted to raise goats so I bought him his first nanny.  She is part nubian and will make a good breeding doe but also a good milking doe. She's super friendly and easy to handle. Perfect for a 12 year old's first goat.

The little buck next to her is not hers but came from the same farm. We took him to finish him off and send him to market. Goats did very well at the auction over easter so we have our fingers crossed its a good year for goats all around.

So that's it in the barn that's new. In the equine department, we still have Chase, Farm Girl's horse, Pixie and Blossom. We sold Fantasia as I just didn't feel the connection with her. Our love for Pixie and Blossom is pretty tight that I think I just want to keep their babies and not bring in any others. I did buy a little project for us over the winter which I never got at.

However, in the spring for sure I'm going to hook Pixie up and teach her how to drive. I can't wait.

Meanwhile, we have gone to view some sheep and are hoping to bring them home within the next week or two. I'll try to remember to post some photos. That's it for now. I'll leave you with one of my favourite photos of our recent puppy litter. She reminds me so much of Quinn who we had to rehome after my husband cut me off support payments (will update later on that in a future post) without notice and we were forced to sell a bunch of items to help with finances until I got a job. And poor Quinn was one of our sacrifices.

We are not keeping this little cutie but she is going home to her grandpa's family. Sadly, he died back in November and they want to continue the line so bought one of Jewel's pups from us. Jewel is his daughter. Instead, we plan on keeping a pup from our other breeding dog, Jewel's mom, Emma who is at Oldest place getting bred to her stud who not only has a matching personality as Em, but is super gorgeous. We can't wait for their line.

First Born

Our first born on the new farm arrived mid morning.  Lily our pure white pygmy goat went into labour.

Poor girl had no privacy since we only have shelters and no barns on this farm.

And she ended up delivering outside on a wet and muddy morning. But she did awesome for a first-timer.

She gave birth to a handsome pure white little buck.

Who cleaned up real well.

Name giving for the male goats is left to my son.  This little guy has been named Prime.  Go figure.

Starting Over

The pastures stand quietly abandoned, the sheep's favourite tree looks lonely without the flock sleeping contently beneath it's shade.

The holding pen is still and empty while the shelter sits incomplete.

It was a hard decision to make selling the sheep, but I know when I have been beat and way over my head.  The lack of a perimeter fence and barn was far too much of a challenge to contain 80 something sheep. When they left the property and started heading up the road on their last escape, I knew I was done.  The liability risk of them running into traffic or onto other farmer's properties was too high.  I called a sheep buyer and he came and bought them from me.  In the end, it was probably a good thing as he informed me that the breed of sheep I was raising had little value in this area.  They were considered more as goats then sheep.  So I guess I saved myself years of raising a huge flock of the wrong breed.  It is our intention to make money off this business and the most dollar we can.  I had lost $75 per head on the lambs simply because they were Katahdin.  It was very disappointing.  I loved my sheep.  I took pride in the breed I raised.  It was a huge set back but one that I should be grateful could have been worse.  I could have been deeper invested.

But we are not giving up and will rebuild our flock.  Before then however, we will ensure the perimeter fence is in place.  If I took anything from this harsh lesson was that no matter how wonderful electric fencing may work, it does go out and you need something permanent in place to keep them from escaping further.  Meanwhile, Chase has returned to the farm and has an overnight enclosure in the sheep's holding pen preventing him from having any crazy ideas about visiting the horse farm down the road again.

And the miniatures are still here along with the billy goats.

And of course the pygmy goats whom Delilah has been reassigned to guard.

I am saddened that the sheep are gone considering they were our main reason for coming here, but I tell myself it again was in God's plans for me.  If they had never escaped, if I had never realized my limits, if I had not called in the buyer I would never had known I was on the wrong track.  So until the flock return, I guess I will enjoy being a goat farmer.

Blossom's Fate Revised, Goat Attack, and Flock Escape (Again)

Yesterday I was going to blog about Blossom's feet.  For a recap, read this post about her fate here.  I knew it was overdue but me and Farm Girl finally got around to brushing down the minis and trimming their hooves.  Blossom still has her baby coat on but we did the best we could to remove most of it so the heat wouldn't be so insufferable.

But it was her hooves that had us totally stunned.  She was standing on them rather than her heels.  It appears her lax tendon is healing.

Her right hoof actually looks completely healed.

While her left was in worse shape it is also starting to gain strength.  The hoof has been so deformed because of the lax tendon however I hope with proper trimming in addition to her standing correctly on it will benefit both her leg structure and the shape of the hoof.

I am feeling good about Blossom's legs and praying for a miracle because the idea of euthanization is unbearable.

The reason I wasn't able to do this post yesterday as we had another flock escape.  This time they found a way out of their holding pen but this time around I had help.  Both Farm Girl and my hubs were here to help round them up.  They are being held up in the electronet until the holding pen is secured again which hopefully isn't too long as it is pouring rain outside with the chance of thunderstorms.  

Sheep huddled under the tree during the downpour.

Hate to loose power and chasing sheep once again.  Though we did pick up a solar energizer yesterday but it will take a few days to fully charge.

The other big deal that happened yesterday was that we had to say goodbye to Samson, one of the livestock guardian dogs we recently brought to the farm to guard over the sheep.

Though Sam was a very sweet dog, he was also excessively timid, was far too sheep obsessed and showed signs of aggression at meal times.  That aggression finally resulted in blood drawn.  We are not sure how or why, but we knew he did not like our milking goat, Beatrice.  We had noticed him lunge for her a couple times and left small bite marks on her ears but we had hoped they were simply warning signs.  However, yesterday morning I glanced out the window and noticed him viciously attacking her.  We ran out to the pen and called him off which he did promptly, however the gashes he left in Beatrice were big.  He bit off one of her horns and tore a huge gash in the side of her gut.

Those huge orange stains are iodine which it makes it look worse even though it was certainly severe enough though Beatrice is fine today and walking around and grazing as per usual.  We had thought his dislike was toward Beatrice solely and began building the pygmy goat pen we had planned in the future as we needed to separate Beatrice from Samson.  However, at the end of the day after we had chased everyone back into the electronet, we discovered that Olaf, one of the kid dairy goats and Torch, one of the pygmy kid goats also had blood on them and had been attacked.  The decision to remove Samson from the farm was swift.  The hubs took him back to his farm where there is no livestock and where we will rehome him.  We are not certain if his aggression is towards goats only or not, however we are not taking the chance.  Attacking three goats in one day and causing so much blood loss will only lead to a certain kill in the future.

It really was too bad because he is an awfully sweet dog who craves human attention yet fears it at the same time.  Hopefully we can find him a home with a gentle, kind, patient and understanding owner who can see Samson for his good qualities.  Sadly, however, he has no place on my farm and had to leave.  That leaves the job of guarding the sheep entirely up to Delilah.  We are having some health issues with her right now, mainly her drastic weight loss and lack of desire to eat.  Not sure but perhaps Samson might have had something to do with that as well since he was so food aggressive.  Besides I had seen him attack her for no reason once or twice.   However, the loving personality of our pet dogs, have done Delilah a world of good and see her coming around slowly.  Now that Sam is gone, perhaps her full potential will be realized.

Awkward

During the peak of today's heat, I went outside and found most of the goats and sheep asleep in the most awkward places.

Farm Photos

Took a little time out of my day and my camera and snapped some photos from around the farm.

Guess who is back with us?  Farm Girl had the opportunity to buy back her horse, Chase, so jumped on it.  She missed him more than she realized she would.

Chain of Shame

We are still learning about our livestock guardians dogs as much as they are learning their job requirements.  We discovered that Delilah is wonderful around the sheep.

Her calmness and quiet presence relaxed the sheep early.  Within days they accepted her amongst the flock.

I could easily leave her untethered at night in the barn or outside all day with them.  I never feared she'd hurt them in any way.  At only 10 months old, she is amazing.  I haven't even noticed any rough play with the lambs which is common in LGD's of that age.  Yep, I felt confident with Delilah guarding over the lambs.  The goats, however, was a different matter.

Especially the pygmy babies which she became far too excited over.

I'm pretty certain she's never seen a goat before.  They either brought out the predator in her or she thought they were a predator moving in on her flock.  Even if this was the case, poor Delilah ended up wearing the chain of shame.

I actually just learned about the use of a drag on adolescent dogs which the timing couldn't be more perfect.  I actually was thinking of Samson who would benefit from the drag, however, today it was Delilah who reminded me that no matter how mature she acted, she was still just a pup.