The Farm Chronicles - February

Oh dear. Things have been so busy, I nearly forgot about the monthly update!

February was a very busy month for us. Even though it was a short month, we managed to cram quite a bit into it. Most of our activity was preparing for our goats to arrive, and we expect them sometime today or tomorrow. Hooray! It's finally time! We've cleaned, moved, built, rebuilt, fenced, shopped, you name it. We still have some little things left to do, but luckily they can all be done after they get here. We have also arranged to board another goat for a friend while she tries to sell her house and move, so we'll have four goats for awhile instead of three. The more the merrier!

While we were working on the goat barn, we were blessed with excellent weather. It was sunny and dry all month, and unusually warm - in the seventies and low eighties. This made working much easier, but we discovered that the onset of warm weather means that spring is full on for the animals! One of our ducks decided it was time to bring some babies into the world, so she's presently sitting on about sixteen to eighteen eggs. This apparently put one of our hens in the mood and she decided she wanted to sit on the duck eggs too. After breaking up a few fights, we relocated her to private quarters with her own egg pile, which she's now happily sitting on as well. As if that were not enough, I also ordered 25 baby chicks to be delivered the second week of April - coincidentally, the same time that the resident chicks and ducklings should be hatching out. We will be awash in babies, and you can bet there will be pictures!

Speaking of babies, we managed to finally usher in our first successful litter of bunnies. They're about two and a half weeks old now, and are starting to leave the nest box. Well, at least this one is -

We've also learned that not only have our bees survived the winter, but they have thrived and are in need of larger accommodations NOW. We've got additional supers on the way, but since this is the busy season for beekeepers and suppliers, we might have to wait awhile.

In spite of all my good intentions for the garden, I haven't managed to plant anything except peas, radishes and potatoes. I've succumbed to the reality that my original garden plan was far too ambitious, and our soil is simply too poor, so I've revised the plan for this year. We'll put a couple of much smaller, raised beds on top of our existing plot and plant in those. That should allow us to still get some vegetables this year, and amend our soil in small sections, which will be much easier to manage.

Meanwhile, life has been carrying on as usual. The puppy is getting bigger, work is going along, we still manage to make a little time to socialize here and there. We're getting a bit of a rest this weekend, but I know it won't last long!

Our "To Do" List

1. Clean house in preparation to receive guests. Worry that dogs will harass guests.

2. Praise dogs for good behavior. Apologize to guests for swarm of bees surrounding the front door.

3. Dispatch deranged raccoon.

4. Dispose of raccoon.

5. Break up poultry fights. Get pecked and hissed at.

6. Remove hostile chicken to private quarters where she can do no further harm.

7. Attempt to "herd" ducks into barn and attached yard. Fail miserably.

8. Curse ducks and their uncooperative ways.

9. Patrol yard at 1:00 am to find source of late night dog barking.

10. Curse dogs for barking their heads off at big, scary, threatening...bunnies.

11. Move straw bales out of barn to make room to work.

12. Move straw bales back into barn due to threat of rain.

13. Move straw bales around barn because they're still in the way of something.

14. Curse straw bales.

15. Work fingers raw yet again putting finishing touches on goat barn.

16. Sit down to a couple of huge margaritas, and congratulate ourselves on a job well done.

Living and Dying on the Farm

Here's what's living. Our latest bunny babies are doing well. They're all nice and fat and healthy, and I think we're past any threat of cold weather. I'm not going to get too comfortable, though, until they're walking around and eating solid food.

As for the sad news, we've lost one of our Muscovy drakes. I have to assume he fell prey to a coyote. He simply disappeared - I've walked the area all around the house, pond and barns, and there's no trace of him. It's highly unusual for the ducks to separate - they all move as a single unit - so there's virtually no chance that he just wandered off. They tend to stay very close to the house, anyway. I'm really sad about losing him, and so is Mr. Farm. We're rather attached to the ducks. This also puts us in a rather awkward position. We only had four ducks to begin with (hardly a predator "buffer") and two of them don't even technically belong to us. We had two breeding pairs, one of which was ours and one pair we were keeping for some friends. Those friends are moving and are just about ready to retrieve their pair of ducks. We now have one breeding pair and one single female with a clutch of eggs. I'm not sure how this will all shake out in the end.

The really disappointing thing is that we can no longer allow our ducks pond access, at least not without major modifications. We know that coyotes are casing the pond area, and unlike chickens, ducks DO NOT like to go into a little house at night (I had to put them in last night under extreme diress). It's quite saddening to have a pond and to have ducks and not be able to bring the two together, as they ought to be. I expect some greater level of confinement and a kiddie pool will be in their future.

The Goat Barn - Before and After

Before:



After:

A Full Service Farm Store

When you live in the country and have livestock, your needs are, well, different from the needs of urban dwellers. Now, I love living in the country - I mean really love it - but sometimes it can be hard to find the things we need out here...out here. I've found since living here that the feed store I frequented in suburbia was far better stocked that the rural one closest to me. It's not uncommon to find that if I need a certain this-or-that for garden or animal, I must go to the nearest larger city to find it. I do not get this. I've been making due with my local feed store and the Tractor Supply about 15 minutes away, with only moderate satisfaction. Yesterday, however, all my prayers were answered (at least they would have been, if I were the praying type).

I discovered Mann Farm and Ranch.

It's about the same distance as the Tractor Supply, but down a road I'd have never gone down. It also KICKS TSC's BUTT. I had discovered Mecca. They have virtually everything I could possibly need. All the types of feed I like, all the whole grain I'd ever want, every supplement, every piece of gear, every garden tidbit, fencing, feed buckets, chainsaws, tractor parts, everything. Plus boots.

AND, they might have the world's most charming staff. After ringing up a sizable order at the feed counter, I asked the gentleman if they had any livestock panels. I hadn't really looked outside, so hadn't noticed whether they stocked fencing or not. He ALMOST said "yes". Instead, the conversation went like this:

"Do you by chance carry cattle panels?"

(VERY brief pause)

(BIG smile)

"We're a full service farm store, ma'am."

I was giddy. I really didn't think this place could get any better. It is my new favorite place. I'm going to have to restrain myself from making unnecessary visits. Mostly, though, it's just comforting to know that I can travel just a few miles and get everything I need without having to mail order.

We're a full service farm store, ma'am.

How To Meet Your Country Neighbors

When you move to the country, it can be difficult to get to know your neighbors. Houses are separated by considerable distance, you don't physically see your neighbors much, if at all, and country folks are generally wary of strangers driving onto their property unannounced. The quickest way to remedy this situation is to wake up in the morning and discover that you're hosting someone's loose cattle on your land. This was how I began Saturday morning. The dogs were barking outside the kitchen door and I looked out to see a longhorn (with three friends) standing on the opposite side of our stock tank. We're still trying to figure out how they got in. Upon later inspection, no openings could be found in the fence, and if they had managed to get across our cattle guard, they'd have walked right past our front door. Surely one of us, or the dogs, would have noticed THAT. Again, I'm lamenting another missed photo opportunity. I'm not sure why on earth it didn't occur to me at the time to take a picture. I guess I got caught up in the moment.

In the course of 24 hours, we met the cattle rancher up the road (who, it turns out, doesn't own these particular cows), the man who takes care of these cows and the father and son that actually DO own them. They were all quite friendly, and it was good to finally have some face time with the folks we share a fence line with. I feel worlds better about having met and talked to them. I also have it on the cattleman's authority that if my goats ever end up on their side of the fence, I'm not to worry. He said, "They'll be fine over there. Feel free to walk on in and get 'em."

Whew.

All I Want Is Some Hay

Sorry to be fairly quiet lately, but goat preparations are full-tilt. I've spent many, many hours working on their barn and paddock. I moved a 3 foot high by 5 foot wide stack of lumber out of the area that will be their yard, which means I moved the entire stack about 30 feet. I smashed my thumb with the hammer at least 30 times hanging tin sheets on the newly framed barn walls. I reached into deep, dark, scary places and uncovered unspeakable things. I raked. And I raked. And I raked. And still, we're not quite finished. We're close enough to taste victory, but not quite there yet.

All the while, I've been shopping. Goats are complex creatures and have needs far surpassing those of a motley bunch of farmyard fowl. I've bought milk pails and medicine, hoof trimmers and hay racks, feeders and first aid kits. But the single most elusive thing I've had to buy for these goats? HAY. That's right, hay.

If you take a drive through my neck of the woods (or rather, prairie), you generally can't go a mile or two without seeing rolls and rolls of hay sitting patiently in freshly mown fields. Likewise, you can't go any distance without spotting signs along fence lines advertising hay for sale. You've seen the ones I mean - the handpainted wooden sign that simply says:

HAY

(555) 555-1234

Yet somehow, now that I'm actually trying to procure hay, I'm finding it extremely difficult to get the right kind in the quantity I need. Since most folks around here raise cattle, there's an abundance of hay for, well, cattle. This is not the same type of hay that goats generally prefer. Also, small square bales are rather difficult to find. Most of what is available comes in large rounds like the one pictured above, that can't be moved without equipment. I would have to have a round bail delivered, and once it was here, it would be staying wherever they choose to deposit it. Because I'll only have three goats, and will largely be caring for them myself without the aid of heavy machinery, I need small quantities of hay that I can easily move from storage to barn myself - i.e. square bales. I cannot find square bales of Sudan hay to save my soul. I keep trying and striking out. I did manage to score a delivery of 15 square bales of alfalfa, which is coming tomorrow, but that's a bit rich for them to eat all the time, so I still need some squares of good old grass hay for roughage. I keep telling myself that it can't possibly be this hard. They'll be arriving in just a couple of weeks, so the search continues.