Recent Happenings

Actually, not much happening right now.. But couldn't think of a better title.. So there you have it.. But I do have a couple of pics to post and a possible happening..

The other day I was doing some things to the boys shelter.. Gavin, being a bottle baby, just had to be near me.. I sat down for a minute to rest and Gavin came up for some attention.. I had my cell phone with me and snapped this picture..



He was chewing his cud at the time and I caught him mid chew.. Unfortunately, cud stinks and he likes to have his face close to mine so I can kiss him on the nose and scratch his face.. Won't be able to kiss him on the nose much longer though when its breeding season and he becomes a stinky buck.. To get that lovely stinky smell, male goats pee on their faces.. Of course they also get it all over their front legs and anything else that happens to be near by.. I almost got peed on by a young buckling once because he liked to mark people.. As if they were his property.. Obstinate little pissant..

And speaking of stinky bucks, I may have found a registered pygmy buck for my kinder project.. His name is Gambler and he's 6 yrs old.. He's older than either of my girls but I think his "experience" will help with getting the girls bred.. The girls, after all, are probably taller than he is..





Isn't he a cutie? And the lady said he's a sweetie too.. Need to talk to hubby and pick a day to go see him.. I told our youngest, Kaitlyn, that we might get him and now she keeps asking when are we getting him.. I guess to her its already a done deal..

Anyway, that's pretty much it for now.. Chickens are huge.. No eggs yet but should be any day now.. Rabbits still haven't done the naughty.. Figures that I would end up with celibate rabbits..

My newest crochet projects

Not much going on here.. Sold two of my older goat does.. Still have Prima, my milker.. Still have all the babies.. Hard to sell them right now with the economy the way it is..

Still no baby bunnies.. Nobody seems to be in the "mood".. I've been told that giving the girls wheat germ oil helps.. Will have to get some from the store tomorrow and try it out..

Chickens are getting bigger.. One of them crowed this morning.. If you want to call it a crow.. When I first heard it, I rushed to the back door because it sounded like a person trying to attract the chickens attention to nab them or something.. There are two that I'm sure are roos, and two I'm sure are hens.. The fifth one I'm still up in the air about.. Definitely more comb development then the two hens, but not as much as the two roos.. But I'm afraid that one is a roo because later I saw it and the two roos challenging each other.. The black roo is definitely the boss already.. The blue roo is the one that crowed.. The chicken in question is black also.. Then there is the blue hen and the splash hen.. The splash hen is definitely more curious then the others and seems to be at the bottom of the pecking order.. I really hope that one isn't a roo.. It'll through off my ratio so much..

Anyway, my crochet stuff..
First one is an amirugumi crochet mouse.. Like all my crochet things so far, I got it off of youtube..


My adorable husband sporting his new beanie.. It says #1 Dad.. Our 5 yr old, of course, had to be in the pic.. The beanie itself is the same pattern I've used for the other beanies which I got off youtube.. The lettering I also learned from a youtube video.. I definitely made the letters too big.. Will have to work on my lettering..


I learn all my crochet stuff from a woman who has tons of very informative videos on youtube.. She also has a blog.. http://crochet-mania.blogspot.com/

My next project I will sort of be designing on my own.. A doggie bed.. Part of it will be a tube which I learned how to make from one of her videos..

I made goat cheese!!!

I finally took some of the extra milk I'm getting and made some cheese from it.. Haven't tasted it yet.. Its supposed to sit in the fridge a couple of days before you eat it.. This is the recipe I used.. I hope I did it right because it didn't have any measurements for the vinegar or the salt, and I only had regular iodized salt.. I really hope it turns out ok.. If anybody has any other thoughts or suggestions or different recipes, I'm all ears..

Another video of the chicks

You can hear the goats in the background screaming to be fed.. Prima is the loudest one.. She's letting me know that she wants to be milked because she knows that food comes right afterwards.. Anyway, enjoy the chicks..

Wow, I hadn't realized how long it had been since I'd posted.. Just have had so many things to do and so much on my mind that I haven't had the desire to sit down and say anything..

First off, the babies are doing well.. Bluebell had two boys and since they'll be meat goats, I let her keep them.. So I only had the four nubian babies to bottle feed.. They are growing fast and at about 2 months old now, they're eating hay, oats, and alfalfa pellets.. I've got them down to just one bottle a day.. Before that, I was going through so much milk.. It was crazy..

We've named and gotten everybody registered except for Bluebell's babies.. (No sense in registering a meat goat..) But I'll go by the pics in the previous posts.. Prima's black and brown boy is Gavin.. The spotted one is Euwyn.. I've already got a deposit on him.. Velvet's boy is Spoticus because of the big spot in the middle of his back.. The spotted little girl is Moira.. We're keeping her..

For the week, they lived in the house.. We kept them in a big dog crate except at feeding time.. Week two-four they lived outside in the pen while the other goats were closed off into the yard.. Since then they've been living with everybody else.. The mothers don't recognize them so they don't let the babies nurse.. The babies don't see them as a milk supply anyway so they don't try to nurse..

Anyway, here are some pics and video..

The babies supervising me as I make a raised bed of cinder blocks.. More on the raised bed later..


Euwyn after he got disbudded..


The babies playing in the yard..


A video of the babies playing and chasing me that I had to put on youtube because photobucket was being a pain in the butt..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXFCZC60PDQ

I also did another article for Gardengirltv's webzine so I made a short video to go along with it about bottle feeding baby goats..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdk_H2r_9Lo&feature=related

That's about it for the goats so let's go onto the rabbits..

Since Trixie had her babies, I've been looking for a buck to breed them to again.. Didn't have much luck until a guy on a forum I visit said he was getting out of his Florida Whites and that I could have his buck.. He just wanted them to go to a good home rather then him having to butcher them.. I get his two does also once they have their babies and they're weaned.. I've already got Dixie possibly bred but Trixie is being quite resistant.. I've taken to just leaving her in with the buck for a day and then taking her out, waiting a little while and then leaving her in again.. His name is George, but I haven't taken a picture of him since he's a white rabbit and pretty much looks exactly like the girls.. His ears are a little bigger..

Don't remember if I posted about the eggs hatching, but I got six to hatch.. My stupid chicken eating dog ate one of them so now I'm down to five.. But of those five I have one splash, and possibly two blue and two black.. A nice ratio.. Now to wait and see how many are roos and how many are hens..

This is them about a day or two old..


A video of them at about a week old I think..


Them now at about a month and a half old..








And a video..


Last, but not least, my raised cinder block bed.. My mom sent me some money for my birthday and my inlaws sent me a gift card.. So guess what I did.. I went and bought cinder blocks.. I was as giddy as some women are when they get a new purse or a new pair of shoes..

This is the pile when I brought them home.. 23 blocks.. I actually paid for 24 but apparently I miscounted when I was loading them and only got 23..


This is originally how I set them out.. But after watching a gardengirl video, I had to put the long side facing north since that's where I'll be putting all my vining crops..


The bed in its new position.. I've got cardboard boxes and feed bags layed out to smother weeds..


I haven't done anything else with it.. I don't really want to put dirt from the yard in it because of the weeds that will be in it.. And I don't have the money right now to buy bags of soil for it.. Besides, I've pretty much missed the beginning of the summer growing season anyway..

Ok, that's pretty much what's been going on here, farm-wise.. I will leave you with a pic of my boys with mohawks.. I let them keep it for the weekend of my birthday.. Then late Sunday afternoon off it came.. My daughter wanted a mohawk too.. But my husband would have killed me.. = )

Two More Babies!!!

This time a boy and a girl.. These are Velvet's kids.. The boy will be sold and the girl will be kept.. They're eating good.. Sorry, maybe I'll have more details later.. I haven't quite woken up yet.. Here are pics.. Had to take two of the boy since he wouldn't stay still and insisted on getting his legs stuck in the cracks of the couch..

Our First Goat Kids!!!

Prima had her babies today! Twin bucklings! I am so excited and so nervous at the same time.. I really needed girls for my kinder project, but I'm still really stoked about our first two healthy, happy babies.. I will be selling these boys so if you're interested, just email me.. I'm in central Florida.. Anyway, without further ado.....





Aren't they adorable?!!! I've already dipped their navels in iodine and they've both had about 3 oz of store bought milk with powdered colostrum in it.. Right now they're cuddled against me dozing..

Anyway, need to go check on mom and see if she's passed the placenta yet..