GOATS...GOATS...GOATS

Well we are finally ready for the goats. The boys and Laura (as well as me) were all quite excited about the event. We went and picked up Nanny Goat and Billy Goat today. They seemed a little nervous as was I, as we loaded them up one by one in our little goat trailer. It took a little coaxing to get them out of the trailer and into their new home. They seem to have adjusted and settled down by this evening. It looks as though (probably Billy) one of them
jumped on the top of the goat shed. Now the top on one side is bent over. Wish we coauld have caught sight of the acrobatics. I am sure we will have ample opportunity in the future. Laura seems taken with them. It takes a lot to keep her out in the midday sun to watch anything. We will give an update as we experience the life of having goats. Next I need to build a milking stand along with a permanent shelter and milking area. Hopefully others can benefit from our mistakes or share from their own wisdom and help us avoid some pitfalls. And one last photo as finally everyone is setled and all of the critters are checking each other out (Dog, Goats and Rooster).

PRACTICAL PALLETS


Today has been a good work day. We have finished the goat fenced in pen and the gate. We decided to make the gate out of a pallet. I tend to collect pallets whenever I can, it has turned into a running joke around here. Our chicken coop framing and flooring was made totally out of pallets, I like the price of FREE really well. Joshua and I welded up a couple of pieces of rebarb to make grates for some problem areas in the fence. This appears to have taken care of




We propped up the pallet at first and it seemed to be a good fit and starting point. Then we added the upper frame (also from pallet wood), next went on the farm fence and to finish things off we added three strands of barb wire securing and filling in the fence in upper section. Standard gate hardware was used for the installation.

Next came the pallet palace for the goats and one rooster for now. This will just be a temporary shelter until we can build the larger milking shed and shelter. We will use a saltbox design as we did for our equip shed. But for now here are a few shots of the goat shelter.

We finished the goat shelter off with so aluminum siding salvaged by my sister in-law Trisha. The shelter will be located to the lower part of the goat pen once we get the other shed built. It will cost us about $500.00 to complete it, so hopefully come October we will finish it up.

Next weekend the plans are to extend the chicken yard and pickup the goats. We really enjoy having all of the animals around, but it really changes how you live your day to day life (vacations, overnight trips). We are still learning to not go so much and by God's grace and mercy He is changing us little by little.

A total of 6 chicks from this batch have died, three more red Broilers have been isolated. I believe the Red Broilers have been over all weaker but more active than the standard broiler cross. Since they tend to sit around more than the other chicks they seemed to get stepped on a lot, that is why we are isolating these few to give them a chance to recover. We have a Dark Cornish and a Red Broiler in one picture together the Red Broiler is the larger of the two. In the other picture is a Buff Cornish.

On the layer front we are having some issues with the hens pecking and breaking the eggs. This has only occurred since we have added a friends additional six hens. I can only conclude that the area is becoming overly congested for the chickens. We are separating out some of the culprits, the other hens seem to readily pickup their bad habits. I plan on enlarging the pen this weekend if I can finish off the goat pen. I may build a drop away egg nest box also. Any other suugetions would be welcomed.

Transformed Trailer to Huge House

I finally found a picture of my sister inlaw's place in Georgia. She has taken an old double wide trailer and transformed it (still in progress) into an extremely nice house. She and David had the trailer moved 12 feet apart and then added a 12 foot wide clear story. I have never seen anything like this done before, so I thought I would share it in case someone else was considering widening a double wide trailer. It will be very interesting to see the finished product. Laura, myself and the boys had a good visit while being able to help out with the project a little while we were there.

More Fencing

We are just about finished with the fence installation for our goats. We need to string ½ of the 1 strand of barbwire and all of the 2nd strand and build the gate. All three of the boys have worked extremely hard with me. I couldn’t ask for a better crew. We have had some offers for help, but I really wanted this to be a family project. It has been a growth process for me and the boys. I truly desire to teach them how to work together and what it means to do the job right the first time. As they have found out it is much better to do it right the first time rather than do the job twice. Of course some of that blame falls right back on me for not giving clear instructions at times. Assuming they know more than they have been taught is a frustrating practice for all of us.

By the end of the day on Saturday we all felt like Zech and Buttinz.

I am beginning to truly appreciate the wisdom of God in creating a day of rest. We all need both physical and spiritual restoration by the weeks end. The Lord is truly gracious and merciful to us in every aspect of our lives.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children-with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. Psalm 103:13-18

CANNING CRAZY

Laura has been very busy canning tomatoes, salsa and peaches. We have done canning in the past, but this has been a real learning time for us this year. She canned some green beans but without a pressure canner. The results were less than pleasing. About 45 quarts all went bad, an expensive lesson in using the right equipment. We would love to get to the point (hopefully starting next year) that we raise most of our own garden items and produce enough to last through out the year. It is neither cheap or easy to do as we are finding out, but well worth the effort and pain. Laura has been a real jewel even with the problems she still perseveres as one working unto the Lord.

CHICKENS AND GOATS

We added another six layers to our flock (we are caring for the chickens of some friends, it may be temporary or permanent). Now we are getting 11 eggs a day. Sometimes it seems as though the chickens will never start earning their feed.

Our new chicks have now reached 1 week old. We have now lost a total of six chicks. This is by far the worst loss we have yet to experience. Ideal Poultry was very friendly and quick to refund the price of the first four chicks. The other two died later (of unknown causes) and I have not sought any reimbursement for those chicks. We have only lost Buff Cornish and Red Broiler chicks. All of the Dark Cornish have survived and appear to be much more vigorous than the others.

In recent days we have been trying to finish up a fenced area for our goats. We are due to pick them up (a nanny goat and a billy goat) by the end of August. Not knowing much about goats this will be somewhat of an experiment. We are planning on raising the goats for milk primarily and possibly for meat (depending on the offspring). More or our goat plans after we get them situated.

More CHICKENS!

We received a new batch of chickens today. We order 10 Buff Cornish (not the cross broiler but the real breed) and 10 Dark Cornish and 10 Red Broiler Cross-breed. This was our first order from Ideal Poultry in Texas. Overall condition of the chicks was good, but 3 did arrive dead and a couple of other ones were weak. We will have to wait and see how the hatchery responds to the shipping deaths. It has been extremely hot these past few days and that may well have contributed to the condition of the chicks. We intend on raising these birds for meat production. We have raised the normal Rock/Cornish Cross earlier this year. I was not impressed by their lack of energy to do anything but eat, sleep, and create manure, but they do grow extremely fast. A friend has called them Fraken-Birds and I have to agree with that assessment. So we are hoping one of these other varieties will prove to create a satisfactory meat-bird in overall size, that matures a bit quicker than typical chicken breeds. This is really a test run to discover our favorite type of meat-bird.

On the other chicken front, a friend gave us three more laying hens (Buff orpingtons). That brings our flock up to 3 roosters (one dominant Buff Orpington, one immature Aracana and one I'm not sure about) and 11 potential layers (some Buff Orpingtons, Aracanas and others I'm not sure about). Right now we are getting six eggs a day on average. Some of the hens have not started laying yet, but should soon. At our house we could easily go through a dozen eggs a day. Right now we feel very blessed by God to have what we have. Next on the mini-farm front will involve adding a couple of goats. More at that later