Farm Life...

...can be hard sometimes.

Yesterday, Sophia came running into the house to report that "Sundance's babies are dead!" When we went out to the barn, Sundance did indeed have two dead babies on the ground.

I took her into the milk barn and checked her and felt at least two more babies inside! I could tell that they were dead and I didn't think that I could get them untangled, so we piled into the pickup and traveled the 20 miles to the vet.

There, they delivered the two other babies and gave her some medicine to help prevent infection.

So, now, we have poor Sundance, who is calling for her babies and is in pain from the vet. We're watching her very closely to make sure that she doesn't develop an infection. The babies looked premature, so I don't think she'll come into milk.

But, at least, it looks like she'll make it.

On a brighter note, I finally got to drive the old '69 Dodge.

The guys have a '69 Dodge 1/2 ton pickup and I have secretly always wanted to drive old faithful. I finally got the opportunity today when Dana needed some fuel in the tractor he was bailing with.

My first car was a stick shift and I miss driving a stick! Someday, I'll have one again.

But for now, I need to get out and do chores.

Alexzander

I finally got some pictures of Alexander this evening!

Here's a good picture of his beautiful blue eyes.



Alexzander didn't know quite what to make of Cally the cat.



Kaia has been stuck in the garage for a few days until I finished the fence. Then, I realized that she can STILL squeeze through the cattle panel, so I had to double up the fence until she gets a little bigger!

She was excited to be back with the "boys."




I snapped this photo of some thunderheads.



We had rain today and then the afternoon was beautiful. But, right after I took these photos...in the middle of chores...we had a little shower.

In the barn, Zander decided that he would like to help himself to some of StarFire's grain, so he hopped up on the milk stand. StarFire wasn't too happy about it.



Never a dull moment with goats.

Rain, Rain, Rain

It rained all day yesterday; a fine, slow rain, but relentless.

We got about a half inch at home, but we weren't home, we were up to Minot and back.

We got our little Alexzander. (I'd go out and take pics of him, but it's raining really hard right now, he he he.)

So, now we're in the MiniNubian business.

MiniNubians are a smaller version of the full-sized Nubians that we currently have.

You start out by crossing a Nigerian buck with a Nubian doe. You cross for a couple of generations until you end up with a smaller version of the Nubian that gives quite a bit more milk than a Nigerian, but is much smaller than the Nubian...AND eats much less, is easier to handle, etc.

I'm really excited to start breeding this relatively new breed of goats and see how things go. It will be a new adventure.

Hope you're all having a great day.

Monday, Monday

We didn't do much yesterday. A few things around the house, but otherwise, we relaxed.

Dana's been working hard, as always, so a little R&R was what he needed.

Today we're going to pick up our little Nigerian buckling in Minot, so that should be fun. I'll try and post pics tomorrow as I'm sure we'll be late getting home.

Kisses From Cookie Monster

Olivia and I had fun taking pictures this afternoon.



Cookie Monster, our newest little buckling, is doing very well.




He decided that Olivia's nose looked tasty enough to take a sample of.



It doesn't look like Olivia enjoyed it that much though, hehehehe.






This is Olivia's Oreo. She LOVES this goat and Oreo loves her. She was the first doeling born on our farm, so she's pretty special to all of us. She should be kidding later this summer.



We didn't do much today...just a lazy Wednesday at Swan-S Grove Farms .

We're having a little shower as I write this. Lots of bad weather in other parts of the state. I have a friend that lives south of Dickinson and it sounds as if there was rough weather there, so I pray she's okay.

God Bless and Protect you all.

Blessed Rain

We received rain today...finally.

We have had only sprinkles lately while north and south of us have received significant rain, and today was our turn, I guess.

According to our rain gauge, we received a little over two inches!

My garden is really taking off, but I'm a bit behind on weeding, so I won't take pictures.

Little Cookie Monster is doing wonderful. His mama is giving good colostrum/milk, so he's slurping that up.

Olivia and I worked on immunizing goats today. We finished for now, but they will all need a booster for their pneumonia vaccination in about four weeks as this was their first shot. After that, I'll immunize them once a year.

Hope you all had a great day!

Surprise in the Barn

Well, Sunday, Dana and I finally were able to work on gates and fences. We've been trying to get to it for weeks!

It was hard work, but it's so nice to have it done.

This morning, Olivia and I worked about half of our herd. There were several who needed boosters of CD/T vaccine and we vaccinated about 2/3rd of them against pneumonia. We'll finish the rest tomorrow.

We also had to treat a few goats for coccidia. They REALLY don't like the medicine. It's really bitter. We tried adding Stevia (which is a natural sweetener) and it actually did seem to help a little.

So, this evening, we went out to do chores and we found a surprise in the barn. Can you guess what the surprise was?



His mother is Daisy, and she has really been busy the last few years. She's kidded four times in the last 28 months! I guess she deserves a break! I didn't realize that had happened, or I would have been more careful. However, I hadn't actually sat down and thought about how many times she had kidded until I began writing everything down in one place from my notes that were scattered here and there (notebooks, calendars, etc).

She kidded in January and I had actually dried her off after a few months because she wasn't really giving that much milk for some reason. (I think it was just too cold this winter!)

I think she's going to give plenty of milk this time, though, because I milked out over a pint and a half of colostrum! Little Cookie Monster drank over six ounces of Daisy's good, rich colostrum, so he's settled in for a nice nap with a full tummy.

Olivia is going to call him Cookie Monster because his sister is named Oreo. I thought it was a cute name.

More Pictures

I just thought I would put in a few more pictures that I took with my new camera. Did I mention that I LOVE it?

Here's a picture of foxtail barley that grows everywhere! My goats don't like it, but I think it's pretty.



I enjoy photographing nature as much or more than my kids, lol.

Here are some pictures of the goat kids frolicking. They're so funny. When one of them gets a wild hair, it just takes off running with ears flying everywhere. Then any baby in close proximity takes off with it.









Here's a couple of pictures of my youngest. It's been hard for me to figure out who she looks like.







You know how when you are watching your child and there are fleeting moments when you say, "Oh, that reminded me of my brother!" or "When she looks like that, she looks just like her sister!" Well, that never happens to me with Mariah, lol. She doesn't remind me of anyone. She's just...HER.

Thursday at Our House

Today was somewhat of a strange day.

The beginning was rocky as we LOST two baby goats!!!!

How does one lose two baby goats?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

The girls decided to sleep in the tent on the porch last night and they had taken three of the baby goats into the tent with them. The other two were in the barn.

However, when Olivia went in to feed them this morning, she couldn't find them.

I immediately assumed the worst...that they had somehow escaped and been eaten by coyotes or something equally dire.

Then, I finally settled down and figured out that there was NO WAY they could have escaped from the barn without help. So, I asked my two youngest if they had gone in and let the baby goats out and they finally admitted that they had.

So, we were back to missing baby goats, but at least we knew how they had gotten out of the barn.

We searched EVERYWHERE. We walked the pastures; we looked in the tall grass around the house; we even walked the tree stand.

Finally, my daughters found them snuggled under the deck...safe and sound.

So, we fed them and finished chores.

Dana decided that today would be a good day for FSA (Farm Service Agency) paperwork. We drove down to Linton, then back home for dinner. Then, we decided to go to Napoleon to do insurance paperwork.

While I was in Napoleon, my friend Sharon called and said that the keets (baby guineas) had arrived in the Post Office in Edgeley and that she was at the hospital with her daughter and would not be able to pick them up. We had made a deal to split an order of keets since you have to order quite a few so they'll survive the shipment. Neither of us need 50 guineas, so we decided to split the order.

Here's a picture of the keets. Aren't they cute!



We brought them home and got them settled in, then Olivia and I finished chores.

As the baby goats had full tummies, they all settled in for a nap.

Three of them had snuggled down.



Then, another one decided that he would sure like to snuggle down with them. "Hey, let me in!"



Finally, he gave up and lay down for a snooze.



So, that was Thursday at our house. How was your day?

A Visit From Friends & CAE Testing

Today was a wonderful day! How wonderful to visit with friends!

My friend Endine came to day with her three sons and her beautiful little daughter who was just born last Thanksgiving.

I SO appreciated her because she's so bold and fearless and yet so incredibly kind and giving at the same time.

She is my friend who LOVES to draw blood and she loves to disbud. It doesn't bother her at all. In fact, she gets a great deal of satisfaction from doing a job and seeing it done. AND, she's incredibly good at it.

I keep a closed herd and I test every year for CAE. Last year, I did a biosecurity profile on my goats and tested for several diseases that are commonly found in goats in the United States that are passed from goat to goat and can cause death in goats.

This year, I'm also pregnancy testing some of the goats that should have been bred, but I'm not sure about and also some goats that I bought that were with bucks, but aren't bred for certain. I'm excited to find out the results of those tests as that will tell me what to expect for the rest of the summer, lol.

Well, I suppose that I should go out and milk. I hear Tova calling to me, lol.

Speaking of Tova, I guess I'll post the obligatory udder pics of my Tova. She's looking SO wonderful.

Sleeping In the Tent

My girls received a little tent from their Aunt Diana for Christmas last year. We had it set up in the front room for most of January, but Daddy got tired of that and finally made us take it down. (He's no fun at all, lol!)

But, it's finally getting warm enough that the girls have been asking to sleep outside in the tent and we finally relented a couple of nights ago.

You can't tell since it's draped in sheets, but it's actually a little green tent that looks like a frog.



That's Kaia there on the right. She always looks so sad when she's quiet. I guess that's the look of the Great Pyrenees. When she's up playing with the kids, though she looks more happy.

I wanted to get a shot of them when they slept outside last night. Then, they were on the deck, but I guess they're getting more brave because they slept about 50 yards from the house last night.

Here they are sleeping.



Don't they look like little angels?

Also, here's a shot of several of the adult does.

Fencin' on Father's Day

Things were a little laid back today, but I did get some fencing done.

Anyone who has goats know that fencing is really a challenge with goats. I've tried quite a few different things and I have settled on cattle panel.

Some people call them stockade panels, some people call them cattle panels. They're four feet tall and 16 feet long; semi-rigid and the holes are smaller at the bottom working to 4'X4' by the time you reach the top.

I like them because I can work with them myself. I've been wiring them to the existing T-posts a little at a time. I have the buck pen finished.

The buck pen is also where we're keeping our LGD (livestock guard dog).

Our "little" Kaia is a Great Pyrenees. We got her a couple of weeks ago, and I cannot believe how big she has become in that short a time. We've been learning as we go along. We have her broke from chewing on the kittens, but, she REALLY likes our chickens a little too much.

I'll try and get a picture of her online tomorrow.

The baby goats are growing every day. We try to have Kaia spend as much supervised time with them as possible.

The older goats are learning to tolerate her, but it certainly has been a slow process.

Tova, my goat that kidded with triplets, is continuing to give about eight pounds a day. My two first fresheners, Clarabelle and Emily, are each giving between two and three pounds a day.

When you keep milk records, you measure the milk in pounds. A gallon of milk is roughly eight pounds; a quart is about two pounds; a half gallon weighs about four pounds, etc. So, between the three of them, I milked a little over 12 pounds of milk today which is a gallon and a half.

I'll close for now. Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day. We went to his father's house for evening meal. The kids had fun playing with their cousins.

God Bless

New Baby Goats

This has been an exciting week as we have had five new baby goats born.

On Monday, our doe Tova kidded with triplets. This is her second freshening, so we're very excited to see how she milks. Already, she's milking about a gallon a day! She comes from a nice line of heavy milkers, so this is what we expected from her. She had two bucklings and a doeling, so hopefully, her little doeling will grow up to be just like her mother.

On Tuesday and Thursday, we had sisters kid. One had a doeling and one had a buckling. Mommas are doing well...a little shy about getting on the stanchion, but better every day.

We bottle feed our babies, so they bond to humans rather than their mothers. It's a lot of work, but this is the choice that we've made for our farm.

Here's a picture of them all waiting "patiently" for their milk.