Udder Sore

Annie has a sore on her udder. She's had it for a while.

The vet couldn't figure out what it was. She was given a course of antibiotics that didn't do anything.

Topical creams haven't done anything, either. Neither has dosing her with zinc.

I'm hoping that one of the problems may be her copper deficiency.

The sore is about the size of a nickel. It's in a bad spot because it is constantly rubbing against the inside of her leg.

I'm trying some Corona ointment to see if that gives it a little bit of protection from the rubbing. I'm hoping that it will keep it moist as well as kill some of the bacteria and help her heal.

Nothing is wrong with the milk, we checked.

If the copper, worming, and Corona don't do anything over the next 2-3 weeks I'll call the vet again and have her take some skin and test it to see if they can find out what the exact infection is.

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One of our hens has decided that she likes to lay her eggs in the stall next to the hay feeder instead of in the nice nesting boxes that Myles built. I don't know why, but the goats are very careful around her and never seem to break her eggs.

Celia and Bridget

I think that Celia and Bridget are good names for the little goat kids that were born on 17 May 2015.

They are so much fun!

Penny is still rejecting Celia, but if we go out and bring Penny a bucket with food, she doesn't seem to mind Celia having a snack.

Celia is snacking while Bridget is taking a peek at what her mom is eating.

Goat kids in sweaters are some of the cutest little critters!

The twins seem to think the kids are fun to look at, too!

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This is the never ending battle we seem to be facing the past few years:
Foxtail!

Time for Copper!

Some of the Saanen goats we have need more copper than others.

One sure way we can tell they need more copper is their bald noses, or in Curly's case, very thin hair all over.

This week we 'bolused' them with copper. I use Copasure. The boluses are made for cows so they are too big for goats. I open up the boluses and empty the contents into smaller capsules. I push the capsule into a piece of banana and they eat it as if it's a treat because they love bananas!

See Curly's thin coat on his back? This tells us he's low on copper. 

Annie's bald nose is another indication of low copper.

Curly gets a bald nose, too.

All the adult goats got between one "00" size capsule with copper and three "00" size capsules with copper. Annie and Curly were the ones who were dosed with three each because they seem to be the ones that need it most. 

We also wormed everyone this week. It's been a very wet (thankfully!) spring. In our area that means we tend to have more worms. We dose once, then again 10 days later. This week was the second dose. It's not something that First Graders are interested in, so I didn't post about it earlier.

The cows have sloppy pies right now, too. All the wet weather can sometimes bring out the coccidia so they are being treated with some Corid in their water for a few days. Sloppy pies can also be caused by too much protein, but that isn't a factor since their feed hasn't changed.

It's back to semi-normal adult posts for the summer. 

I'm not sure how I'll handle things in the fall.

It might be time for a blog re-design. 

If you have suggestions on who does a good job, feel free to leave the notes in the comments!

Mountain Monday * 25 May 2015

Happy Memorial Day!

Here are the photos of the mountains from Sunday, 24 May 2015

South of the barn
24 May 2015

East over the barn.
24 May 2015

North of the barn.
24 May 2015

New Kids!

Penny had two doelings on last Sunday!

She's rejecting one of them. Hopefully we'll be able to change her mind over the next few days.

No 'goat jewelry', she has no waddles.

This one does have waddles.

We haven't named them yet. If you've got suggestions feel free to list them in the comments!

Mountain Monday * 17 May 2015

It was 64˚ F today. No rain, but there is 63% humidity. The barometer is 30.03. It was a lovely day!

South of the barn.
17 May 2015

East over the barn.
17 May 2015

North of the barn.
17 May 2015

Photos from the Farm #32

Welcome back.... for the last time.

I'm sad to see the end of the year coming so quickly.

Today I have photos of most of the animals so that you can see them one more time before summer vacation.

I also have a story that Matt wrote when he was in First Grade. I thought you might like to read something he wrote when he was your age.

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Echo, our mini-cow

Remi, our new steer.
He's bigger than Echo, now!

Harry, he is almost 6 weeks old.

Clover, our goofy Nubian goat.

I think she's trying to smile at the camera!

Penny. I was hoping she would have her kid before school ended.
She's still pregnant. Maybe she will have her kid next week!

Stew! He is such a nice sheep!

Zeek is on the left, Curly is on the right.
These bucks are the dads on our farm.

Matt took this picture just as Scout was starting to run. He almost looks like a rabbit!

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When Matt was in First Grade we had two ducks named Peanuts and Quackers. Peanuts was a drake (boy), Quackers was a duck (girl).

Brave Peanuts Saves the Day

by Matthew T.

Peanuts and Quackers were splashing around in their pond. They went “tail up” looking for minnows. They swam and quacked and raced through the middle of the pond. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Peanuts and Quackers were enjoying the sunshine and warm weather.

My name is Cookie. I am a black and white cat. The ducks are my friends. I like to go visit them from time to time when the weather is nice.

On this sunny afternoon I was walking along the fence by the duck pond. I was out for an afternoon walk. I decided to go and visit my friends. 

“Hello Quackers! Hello Peanuts! Nice sunny day today!” I said.

“Hello Cookie.  How are you this fine day?” asked Quackers. She was a cheerful duck, as most ducks are. 

Quackers and Peanuts waddled up onto the bank. “We are ready for a snack of grasshoppers and worms. Would you like to snack with us?”

“No thank you.” I said. “But I’ll tag along and visit with you before I snuggle down up on the roof of the gazebo for a nap.”

“Come along, then,” said Peanuts.

We went under the fence to the garden. Quackers and Peanuts always find good worms and grasshoppers there. While they snacked a big black dog jumped out at them and attacked Quackers. She ran flapping and quacking as loud as she could all over the barn yard. The dog went in pursuit of Quackers and caught her!

Peanuts was quacking as loud as he could and  flapping his wings and running as fast as he could go after that dog!  Peanuts charged at that dog so he could try to scare the dog and save Quackers!

While Peanuts was charging the dog I stayed a safe distance. I was scared of that big dog. I did not want to get in a fight with that big dog! 

When Peanuts got to the dog, he bit the dog’s tail. The dog turned around and looked at Peanuts in the eyes for a long time. Peanuts broke the silence and started to quack and flap his wings and tried to bite the dog between the eyes. The dog reeled back in fright and ran from Peanuts! 

Peanuts ran to assist Quackers and to see if the dog had hurt her. Quackers behind looked bloody and sore. Part of her tail was still hanging on. “I feel bad I did not come to help,” I said.

“It is OK,” said Peanuts. “My two-legged friend, Matthew came to see how the chickens were and to give them the leftovers. He saw Quackers and ran to the house to tell his mom. They came out with a pair of scissors and tried to catch Quackers to cut of the part of her tail that was hanging on. 

They walked after her and they got her to go over a piece of wood that lead into the barn. As she waddled over the wood, what was left of her tail fell of. Matthew had to clean out the duck crate and fill it with shavings and put some bleach in their swimming pool to clean Quackers behind when she got in.

Quackers healed very well. It took some time for her tail to heal but she got better. Matthew’s dad said that he thought Quackers would probably die. She didn’t die!

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I hope you enjoyed visiting the farm every week this school year! I hope you have a wonderful summer and that you are excited to graduate to Second Grade. I'm sure your teachers will be very excited to have such smart children in their classes next fall.

Mountain Monday * A Few Days Late!

South of the barn.
14 May 2015

East over the barn.14 May 2015

North of the barn.14 May 2015

Photos from the Farm #31

Welcome back!

How was your week? I hope you learned new things, and that you did your best.

Here's Harry taking a break on Annie's back.
Baby goats love to climb on everyone and everything!

Do you remember our old cat, Cookie?
She is about 17 years old and she still catches mice!
We don't usually have mice in the house,
but once in a while in the spring or fall one will get in.
Thank you, Cookie!

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Do you remember what our yard looked like last week? 

This is what it looks like this week.

All the purple flowers are gone.

More of the red flowers have started blooming.

There are some red flowers called Poppies starting to bloom in this flower bed.
I trimmed all the flowers off the rhubarb, but I haven't had a chance to bottle any yet.
Hopefully I will have time this week.

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I have a very good friend who has pigs. We still don't have pigs. Pigs aren't allowed in Highland.

My friend thinks it's great that you are learning so much about the farm so she sent me some videos of her piglet.

This piglet was injured by her brothers and sisters. That happens with piglets. They aren't very careful and sometimes they pile on top of each other. The piglet at the bottom often gets hurt. 

My friend decided to put her in a pen all by herself and hope she could learn to eat solid food quickly. She was still drinking her mom's milk. 

She did! Now she is healing quickly and is the same size as her brothers and sisters. Sometimes we can't save an injured animal on the farm. No matter what we do, sometimes they die. We are always excited when a sick or injured animals gets better.

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I thought you might like to see one of my friend's goats. This is Widget. She is good at adopting other animals. This year she has adopted a calf. My friend bought a calf, and Widget is feeding it!

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Bryon saw the chickens taking a bath in the garden last Saturday! I ran out with my camera and was able to take some videos for you.



You can see how this chicken shakes off all the dust! Wow! They really get the dirt and dust in their feathers. The bugs shake out with the dust and the dirt and the chickens are much happier!

I think I would be happy to get rid of bugs crawling around and trying to live in my feathers, too!

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Last Saturday there was a balloon that flew over our house.
Bryon got a photo of it!
It landed in a field nearby.
It's fun when the balloons fly so close to our house!

That's all for today.

I hope you have a great week! 

Mountain Monday * 4 May 2015

South of the barn.
4 May 2015

East over the barn.4 May 2015

North of the barn.4 May 2015