Goat Barn

   Been really busy around here lately. My husband got his hay baler and I got my goat barn. Should be safe from the tax man next year. We will see. This weather has been crazy either burn up or freeze. The blackberries are not even blooming yet?

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This is the goat end of the barn.

This is my end of the barn.
The warm weather made everything bloom at once so the pollen around here is terrible. Then it turned cool so it is staying around forever! ICK!!!

Dogwood

Hickory pollen!

  I have a trainer coming out to the farm to train the Haflinger sisters and Velvet. She is doing a great Job. I will have to get some pictures now that I have the new computer set up to do my editing.

Overfed Goats

    I have been raising goats for going on 8 years now. Those of you in the south know this is especially challenging due to the heat, humidity, and worm load. We started using a nubian buck 3 yrs ago on some of our registered Boer goats to get some moms with better milk. I chose a spotted one "Mo Mo" with good milking lines. My full Boer does are Okay moms but not enough milk to raise multiple meat kids. This is Mo Mo's fourth batch of kids. So far I have gotten 4 nice Boer/nubian does. None with spots. I have gotten numerous beautiful spotted bucklings. Last weekend I got my first spotted doe. What a beauty she is ! We named he Momet. He full sister looks just like her mom a full boer doe, a little on the leggy side like the nubians.I'll have to get pictures later as I don't have the picture software loaded onto this computer yet(hard drive on the other crashed).
     Here we get to the title "Overfed goats". I don't have a proper barn or creepfeeder for the kids. So some of my smaller does slip in and eat the creep with the kids. Two to be exact! The were both pregnant and kidded this weekend. I found and helped one with a huge 10lb buckling. I thought I was going to have to feed him but we finally caught mom and got them penned up together. The does mom was a terrible mom and we took her to the sale. This mom is small because her mom didn't feed her properly.
Anyway because she ate the creep her kid was too big and she had trouble delivering him Now she is partially paralyzed on the back end  and should not be allowed to kid again. I could take her to the sale but then someone else might let her kid. The other doe I found yesterday. She had a huge red buckling dangling dead out of her back end.  He was stuck by the hips . We were lucky though, in trying to catch her the kid came free and she passed the after birth with no problem. So because of an improper creep I have lost one doe and two bucklings. Don't let pregnant does overeat! Yes they need proper nutrition to maintain their condition but not get fat.
   Well the shopping for a proper barn and then creep begins! Any good links to how others have their creeps set up would be appreciated. I will get pictures of the new kids. The huge buckling who survived my grandaughter named "jelleybean" because of easter.

Happy Birthday Velvet

Our little filly is 2yo. I thought time flew by with my human children, but it really has with my equine baby. From the time I opened the bag and helped her take her first breath I knew she was special.

Her placenta detached and all came out at once. If I had not been at the birth she would have been dead from suffocation. We imprinted her without really meaning to. She was born jet black. All the experts told me she wouldn't stay black. Black foals are usually born a smokey color .

She was and still is a character. Pocket pony we call her. If you are in the pasture she is right behind you.

At a year old she was still black. We kept looking for signs of roaning. According to the charts she had a 33.3%blue roan,33.3red roan,33.3 bay

This is her picture yesterday at 2yo. She is still black with a few flecks of white on her head  and a spot of white on her back left foot about the size of a half dollar just like her dad. We are not dissappointed in her color she is a beautiful shiny jet black. She will be starting horsey school soon to learn some manners. Because she imprinted we have problems with personal space. She thinks I can protect her from the unknown and walks all over me.

Cancun

What a beautiful place Mexico is.

We really enjoyed our trip.

The water is so blue that a picture doesn't really capture it.

The sand is not so nice on bare feet. There are chunks or coral and small shells. It is not the sugar sand we have on the gulf.

The resort was fantastic. They were very friendly and everything was clean.

We didn't wander outside of the resort. I wish I could have seen more of Mexico. The people at the resort did the best they could to convince us that there was no poverty in Mexico. The drug problem there was the fault of the USA, if we didn't buy it they couldn't sell it. The only poor people were the ones who chose to be poor and there were plenty of jobs and  a prospering economy. Propaganda??

The Tax Man Cometh..

This winter has seemed so long and cold. I know it hasn't been as bad for us as some others, but it isn't supposed to be this cold ,this long . It has zapped any motivation I might have for anything ,particularly being outside. On top of it all it is TAX season.

Farms are great for taxs as long as you continue to buy equipment and spend that money. We hit the end of depreciation in 2009 on most of our big equipment and in an effort to become debt free didn't buy more. We also had a good flock of chickens and made quite a bit more than usual (didn't feel like it). Well.... for what we owe the Guberment this year we could have bought that piece of equipment that my husbands want/needs out right. Now we will pay that money to the govt. and get nothing tangible in return.Hmmm....

Well "debt free" lasted a short few months. It is a good idea but not really practical as long as you are making money. I am not ready to give up making that money yet. So I guess it is back in debt we go. I knew we would have to pay a bit ,but dang I could have hired help for a year and not had to work. So for this year I am letting the husband buy his square baler, accumulator, and grapple.(Not to mention I ran out of hay this year and I just paid $5a bale for crap hay). He is a happy man!

On a happier note (for me) I am leaving for an all girls vacation to Cancun in a couple of days. I fully expect a hay baler to be at the barn when I get home.

LIVE and LEARN

The Sound of Silence

I haven't had much too say in the last week or so. Hibernation I guess. I had a week by myself and really enjoyed it. Didn't spend a penny and the car didn't leave the drive. It has been really cold wet weather here and it has zapped any motivation I might have had. I did have one nice ,dry, fairly warm day and the dogs and I went walking in the woods. I did learn if you are alone and walking in the woods at least take the cell phone. I lost my right leg down some sort of hole that looked like firm ground. Past my knee with my boot on, buried! My first thought was oh my gosh I hope nothing is alive down there to gnaw off my foot, the next thought was I am stuck! I couldn't get any leverage to pull my leg out. I finally found a tree I could reach an prised my foot out. Lesson learned! I could have been stuck there for several days before somone missed me (besides the dogs .)
I did get out one day and get some nice pictures of the farm in the snow. It was really cold and pretty slick so there are only a few.

The barn

arena

Pesky

My garden

table by the creek

dogs loved it

sunrise

I am having trouble sifting through all of the information I have on family history and making sense of it. Since I don't know any of the people and there is no one left to help me it is quite confusing. Thought I would take a break and get outside.

Yes this is Georgia. Not our typical winter and not one I care to repeat. I really would like snow instead of ice but I guess it is not up to me.

We are just high enough to get some lovely views and secenery.

And just low enough to get ice instead of snow.

Hard to tell from the picture but we had at least 1/2inch covering on everything.Very beautiful when the sun came out.We had to get out of the woods though before a branch or huge chunk of ice fell on our heads.