Jake Attacks!

Welcome back!

I hope you've had a great week.

Did you figure out what we use all the poo for? If you thought that we use it in the garden, you're right. We have so much poo that we share it with other families that want it for their garden's, too.

Would you like to meet some new animals?

I thought so!

This is Storm.

This is Fern.

We don't usually name our chickens. Our friends are moving and so they gave us all their chickens because they can't take them to their new house. That's so sad!

These two chickens are really friendly! I love the fluffy feathers on their heads. They are Polish chickens. Chickens have different breeds just like dogs.

Do you see the cage wall? It's about half-way back in the chicken coop.

Chickens aren't very nice to new chickens. When we get new chickens we put them in the back and shut the little door between the two rooms in the coop. We make sure the new chickens have food and water in the back room. We keep them in the back room for two or three days.

Chickens aren't very smart, either. Once the old chickens wake up with the new chickens in the back two or three times they think the new chickens are part of the same flock. Then the old chickens won't pick on or beat up the new chickens.

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We have new ducks, too!

The ducks really belong to Quin and Xander but the ducks are happier in our barn yard than they were in the little chicken coop they were in.

Can you see the difference between the two ducks? What things are the same, and what things are different?

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Thank you for writing me questions! I think your handwriting is getting better.

Annie was born 25 March 2010.
Misty was born 26 March 2011.
River and Serenity were born 9 April 2016.

Can you use a calendar to find out how old they are?

Echo was born 10 February 2014.
She had her first calf on 25 April 2016.

How old is Echo? How old was she when she had her first baby?

Sometimes I wonder why we have lots of animals! We have lots of animals for a few reasons. We like the milk from the goats and the cow. We like fresh eggs, they taste better than eggs bought in a store. We like the things that we learn while we're working on the farm.

We like having animals because most children don't get to see what farm animals are like. Our neighbor children love to come over and visit the animals. Pre-schools, scouts, Activity Day girls, and families love to visit the farm, too. We love being able to share what we do with other people.

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I have some sad news, too.

We have to get rid of Jake, the duck. He was such a nice duck but he has turned into a bully. We can't keep a bully on the farm. It isn't safe for us, or our visitors. Jake will find a new home this weekend.

Can you see him attacking me?
I have layers of winter clothing on so it doesn't hurt. 

He has a strong beak, and long claws on his feet so he could hurt children that come to visit.

We found a new home for him on a farm that doesn't have visitors.

I'm sure he will be happy there.

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Here's a fun picture of Stew!
His coat is so thick that he doesn't mind being out in the snow.

His wool has something called 'lanolin' in it. It's an oil. Oil and water don't mix very well so the snow stays on Stew's back until it melts and drips off. He doesn't get very wet when it rains, either. The water can't stick to his fleece!

Next week I'll show you a little more about wool. I have a spinning wheel and some wool from our sheep. It's so much fun to spin wool into yarn!

Have a great week!

Photos from the Farm * 2 October 2015 * Meet and Greet the Animals

Welcome back!

It was so much fun to meet you all last week! I will post some photos of cider pressing next week. Your teacher did a great job taking a picture of each class so I'm sure you'll be able to find yourself in one of the photos next week.

This week I want to introduce you to a few of the other animals that live at Welcome Home Farm.

Here are the dairy goats waiting to come in for breakfast. The white ones get milked each morning, but the brown one is ‘dry’. Dry means that she isn’t giving milk right now. She still gets some grain and vitamins for breakfast, just like the other three.
Their names (from left to right) are Misty, Annie, Clover, and Sandy. Sandy is a goofball!

Here is Matt and his dog, Miles.
His name is Miles because he has 'miles of smiles.' 
He is always happy!

Miles reminds us of Dug from the movie, "Up!"
He loves everyone he meets, 
and he has a big, black nose.

Do you think they look alike?

Here are a few new pictures of the baby chicks, and the baby turkeys. It's fun to watch them grow up. Do you remember what they looked like a few weeks ago?

This chick was born on the first day of school. She has all her feathers now. She's still small, but she can keep herself warm and doesn't need her mama hen to keep her warm.
She is almost as big as her mama hen! Do you see the grey chicken in front? That's her mama hen!

Here are the chicks that were born on 15 September.
They are starting to get their wing feathers. How many chicks do you see?

Do you see the pile of feathers in the corner?
The mama turkey is molting. That means she is shedding her summer feathers and getting warmer winter feathers. The chickens are doing the same thing.

Look how big the turkey chicks are growing!
They aren't very smart so we have to keep them in the stall so they don't hurt themselves.
Last week one of the turkey chicks jumped into a bucket of water and drowned.

Can you see the hen inside this box? She is sitting on eggs and they are going to hatch soon!
More chicks!

One first grader asked if we have any sheep on our farm.
We have one, and his name is Stew. He's very friendly and loves to follow me around when I'm in the barnyard!
 

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Stew Gets a Hair Cut!

Stew, the sheep was sheared last week.

Big fuzz ball.....

Ready for summer!

He was so glad to have his heavy winter coat off that he was rubbing everything!

Remi, the steer, has a wart near his eye. Everything that I've read said this is common, and that it will go away within the next few months.

After reading this page, I was not worried about it.

Since it's spring, both Echo and Remi have really sloppy 'pies.' I'm not sure if they have coccidiosis or if it's all the fresh grass. We've been dosing them with Corid for the recommended time just in case it's coccidiosis. Corid is one of the medications that we don't worry about using in the beef we eat. It's one of the drugs that's approved by the FDA for prevention and treatment of coccidiosis.

Improving My View

Last week was awful. The easiest thing to handle was Vet2Be having his impacted wisdom teeth removed.

Really, that was the easiest.

The next easiest was me taking a bad fall in the barn on Wednesday. Vet2Be asked, "Are you okay?" My reply, "Nope, not okay!" I ended up bruised and banged up along my right side from head to foot. No guitar playing the rest of this week.

We also found out our [unofficial] foster son is going to Afghanistan for a year. He volunteered for duty. They need medics over there. It's the right thing to do, and we're very proud of him, but it doesn't give us 'warm-fuzzies'.

Add to that all the trials with animals over the week, and we've had a pretty difficult Spring Break vacation.

But it would be unfair of me to leave you with the idea that we have nasty neighbors, and that there was no good that came from this week. We think some of the complaints filed against us and our friends who live two blocks away were made by one or two people who have their "undies in a bunch" and are generally unhappy people.

So, here's a brief report of what happened this week and the blessings that we have received.

The Trials

Not only did someone in our neighborhood complain to the city about us for having too many animals, but someone has also been opening gates and letting animals out in our 3 block area. Our gates all have padlocks on them now, which is frustrating if we want to get to the garden from inside the backyard or the barnyard, but it keeps the animals safe.

The animal control officer in our town is fair and kind. She asked about our animals and even gave us until the end of the month instead of the two weeks I asked for.

One of the questions the animal control officer asked was if our dogs were licensed. One was, one wasn't. The one that wasn't licensed gets a tumor every time he gets a rabies shot. But considering what has been going on lately, I decided to get him a rabies shot and get him licensed anyway. We would have to figure out the tumor thing when it develops again. At least the dogs would be safe if they were picked up. Not that they run off, but if someone is letting dogs out of gates, then I want to make sure our dogs jingle (they have ALL their tags on them!)


Since I couldn't find the licensed dogs tags and paperwork, I decided to get them both rabies shots to be on the safe side, especially because someone is opening gates.


The clinic I took the dogs to refused to give the dog that gets tumors a shot. Yep! They wouldn't give him one!

If I bring him in disguise, I wonder if they would give him a rabies shot?

 Luckily for us we have a phenomenal vet clinic that Vet2Be volunteers at. So instead of making a donation to the low-cost clinic, I made arrangements to take him to our vet.


Instead of giving him a rabies shot in the usual place (back of the neck where there is lots of loose skin) they gave him a shot in his lower leg. The tech treated the area as if it was a surgical site by shaving the injection site, wiping it down with chlorhexadine and alcohol twice, and using a smaller needle to administer the shot. She's got good records of the shot and the procedure.


If you are in our area I highly recommend Timpanogos Animal Hospital. I usually try to keep things anonymous here because my goal for the blog was to help others and to document our successes, failures, and learning experiences. But if you need a good vet, it's nice to know where to find one.


The animal control officer found out that we couldn't get a waiver if the dogs get a tumor from a rabies shot, BUT if we can document it this time with our current vet, if he does get a tumor then she can help us change the ordinance. She said she's pretty sure there are other dogs that aren't licensed for the same reason.

Someone also reported another friend about 2 blocks away for having 4 horses and 4 dogs. Her property really is big enough for 4 horses, but apparently the 'concerned citizen' didn't realize that. Four dogs are not allowed in our town unless you have a breeders license. This family has had four horses and four dogs for 27 years. There are a few of us who think it is one of the new people in the area that is the anonymous 'concerned citizen'. Probably the same one that is baiting and trapping neighbors' house cats.

We found out that on Monday night someone opened all the gates at our friend's house down the road. Someone intended that her dogs and goats all get out. Thankfully one of the dogs was noisy (not unusual, really) but she got up and was able to take care of all the gates and the animals before anyone got off the property.

On Tuesday morning I got a call from a friend who was looking for her daughter. Just before she hung up she asked if we knew who owned two big, fluffy white dogs because the animal control officer had them and they were still on the street.

We have some other friends who live two blocks away. Vet2Be has been taking care of their two Great Pyrenees and their ducks while they were gone on vacation for two weeks. Someone came by and let them out, too. There is no way that the dogs could have opened the gate. The latch is too high and these dogs, because of their size, can't even jump a 2 foot fence.

We ran out the door and jumped in the car (me without shoes) to try to do something about the situation.

Thankfully, the animal control officer knew us from the day before, knew we took good care of our animals and asked us to take the dogs to our house for the rest of the week while the family was gone. Really! She didn't want to take them to the shelter, she asked us to take care of them.

On Thursday, after all the rabies shot problems, and letting the officer know about locking all our gates AND putting locks on the vacationing neighbor's gates, the animal control officer also told us that we could take the dogs back to their place. She knew that it was harder on large guard dogs to be away from their flock than it was for them to be away from their people. We told her we would keep them here anyway, just to be on the safe side.

I've not been as good as I should be about keeping a good attitude about everything.

I've been pretty miffed about everything that's happened. I've been sore physically, and emotionally.

The Blessings

So, where is the good and what are the blessings?

Yes, we have too many animals. However, our neighbors (north, south, and east) all like the animals. One family rented their home BECAUSE the animals were right there for her to look at. Another neighbor is a retired dairy farmer and she loves watching the goat kids from her window every spring. And she loves bringing her grandchildren to the back fence to pet the animals.

The neighbors know and are grateful that we take good care of the animals. A number of the animals are rescued, but well behaved and good with people. We have 3 of the 5 neighbors that share fence lines tell us that they WANT our animals here, they never want us to get rid of the llamas or the sheep or the goats (and goat kids).

We have not one, but three neighbors, as well as Sheepy, who volunteered to house the extra animals in their pastures. One neighbor was so upset that we would get rid of the llama, huarizo (llama x alpaca), and sheep that she talked to me for 20 minutes trying to figure out a way to 'storm city hall' and 'make them let us keep the extra animals!' And this lady is usually a meek, mild woman!

We had lots of people who thought it was ridiculous that someone would count sheep and goats in the same way as you would count a horse, as far as upkeep, housing, mess, and pasture maintenance.

The support of good friends and generous neighbors is uplifting, strengthening, and sustaining. And I need to pay more attention to them than to the 'undies-in-a-bunch-concerned-citizen'.

Another blessing was that if the animal control officer hadn't been to our place on Monday, it's doubtful that she would have let us take the neighbor's dogs to our place.

And the fact that we are now on good terms and friendly with the animal control officer will also be a nice thing. Not that we would ever take advantage of her, that's not our way, but she knows us, knows our concerns, knows that we are trying to keep within the law, knows we take good care of our animals, and she knows that we care for other people's animals and aren't vindictive (although there have been a few times this week I would have liked to...... rain on someone else's parade..... with buck urine!)

The animal control officer gave us to the end of the month, instead of the two weeks I asked for, to remove the extra animals. That turned out great since the rest of this week was spent with other animal problems to deal with.

I told the officer about the dog we found and returned to it's owners, she said that's how she would hope and expect neighbors to be. She's not vindictive and she won't act unless there is a formal, filed complaint.

She also said that there has been alot of 'activity' in our area and she has no idea why.

I don't either.

But I'm going to do a better job seeing the blessings and the hand of God in between the trials we, and others, have been had during the last week.

"We are not perfect. The people around us are not perfect. People do things that annoy, disappoint, and anger. In this mortal life it will always be that way. Nevertheless, we must let go of our grievances. Part of the purpose of mortality is to learn how to let go of such things. That is the Lord's way. Remember, heaven is filled with those who have this in common: They are forgiven. And they forgive." —Dieter F. Uchtdorf

I haven't forgiven as quickly as I should or let things go as soon as I should this week. My fault is greater than our 'concerned citizen' who is picking on her neighbors.

Vet2Be took this photo this week. If I could learn from the flock to be accepting, understanding, and forgiving, that would be a good thing.

Guardians of the herd: the two on the left. On the right is Vet2Be's gentle ewe who is letting the goat kids jump all over her.

Good Karma was born this week, too. The last of the does kidded a healthy, strong, and very large buckling.

We Grow them Big

That's what Sheepy says... and after seeing the photo I understand.

The brown ram on the left is a year old. He's one of the bottle-lambs Sheepy gave to Vet2Be last year. The big one on the right is a ewe that Sheepy got from one of our friends who is moving. The rest are from Sheepy's flock.

Sheepy gives us a bummer lamb or two and we raise them on goat milk and pasture.

This year our freezer still has lamb in it, so we gave the brown ram back when she dropped off the new bummer lamb.

And they love to grow BIG here!

Shearing

On Monday Vet2Be and his friend, Taco, sheared the two sheep. They are Navajo Churro and about a year old. Usually Churros get sheared twice a year, but we didn't get to it last fall and the weather turned too cold when we had time.

Mandy has a beautiful black fleece.

Unfortunately she has a birth defect - she has a severe under-bite. She has a very hard time eating and would never be able to support life, either after being bred, or if she managed live lambs, she would never be able to eat enough to produce enough milk for a lamb.

Vet2Be on the left, Taco on the right. Yes, they are using scissors. We couldn't get the Andis to work, and the hand shears had a spot that wouldn't cut at all.

They sheared Sparky, too. But I was in the house teaching guitar and so I didn't get photos of her.

It is WONDERFUL when I can send two boys out to do some work and it all gets done, and gets done well! Whoo hoo! Less work for me!!!!

Busy Week

Hubby has been gone since Monday and won't be back until Wednesday leaving Vet2Be and me to take care of things on the home front. We've been busy!

This morning we took a trip to the farm store to buy grain and feed for all the animals. Vet2Be also needed a new Sunday shirt and Sunday shoes before tomorrow since he has grown about 4" this year. Not only has he grown taller, he has grown stronger. Lifting 50 lb bags of grain is really easy for him now. He is really enjoying that!

This afternoon we filled the wood box with wood for the stove, as well as filling two plastic totes with kindling. Both are by the back door to make it easy to bring wood in to start a fire. We had some help from two young neighbor boys who love to be here with all the animals and they like the work, too. They did a great job! Not only did they fill the wood box themselves while I was filling the kindling boxes, they helped spread the pine needles in the poultry pen. Their mother said all her children think of our farm as Welcome (to our other) Home Farm, since they feel so at home here. I loved to visit my Aunt's farm when I was growing up and Hubby's grandparent's farm after we were married so I am glad other families feel the same way contentment when they visit here.

The last few years we have used pine needles in the poultry pen. They are stiff enough that they keep the pen dry or at least keep the chicken's and duck's feet out of the muck below. The year we used straw it was a mucky mess all winter and difficult to clean in the spring. Even though the pine needles are stiff, they don't seem to bother the duck's or chicken's feet, which was a concern the first year we used them. Our neighbors like to bring over their pine needles, too! It saves them the time of burning them or bringing them to the green-waste facility. In the spring the pine needles are ready to spread on the garden and till in. Our soil is alkaline here so the pine needles do a great job of adding some acid as well as loosening up the clay soil.

This week we also swept out the barn, cleaned buckets, and got some of our does bred to our buck. We're still milking every morning. And the new ducks have just started laying eggs!

We got a new driveway this week, too! Yipee! The old cement driveway was a gravel pit at the end and has needed to be replaced for about 4 years. It is nice to have an asphalt driveway that is smooooth!

We picked 3 1/2 trees worth of apples this week, too. Right now we have about 25 bushels of apples stored in the barn. We'll pick the rest of the fourth tree this coming week. Hopefully we will be able to make cider from either a rented or borrowed cider press. I wanted to have a press of our own this fall but with so much traveling back and forth to the East Coast this summer, a cider press is not in the budget.

We are hoping to have a small "Harvest Day" on our farm and sell whatever cider we don't have room to store. There are plenty of people who said they would love to see a cider press and how it works. We'll invite neighbors and friends over to watch us press the apples, sample the cider, and bring containers to fill. We've got other neighbors who are selling pumpkins this fall, and another neighbor who sells honey. We'll invite them to sell their goods that day, too. One of Vet2Be's friends wants to be a chef so he picked 2 bushels of apples and he will bring some apple treats to sell so he can also earn some money.

I made 2 batches of goat's milk and oatmeal soap on Monday. One was scented with Cranberry and the other was scented with Grapefruit. My neighbor heard what I had made and asked if I would teach the girls in our church's youth group how to make soap. So I taught another soap making class on Wednesday evening to some of the girls in our church's youth group. They loved it! The idea that goat's milk soap with oatmeal might help keep their skin clear was a big incentive to learn how to make it themselves. Apparently the local 'fancy' store sells goat's milk soap for $8 a bar. Each of the girls and their leaders went home with a small 1 1/2" by 2" bar of soap that smelled lovely. Their leader picked out a scent called Red Current that was light and refreshing. It filled the whole kitchen with a wonderful smell.

We had a great time on Friday evening! One of my other friends is knowledgeable about Navajo rugs, Navajo Churro sheep, and Navajo history. She came with her family and gave a wonderful presentation to 3 homeschool families. She and her husband did a fantastic job teaching us all sorts of interesting things about the Churro sheep and rug making. She has a beautiful collection of rugs and a Navajo loom that she showed us. Her son also demonstrated how to use a Navajo spindle. Hopefully I will get the pictures from one of the mothers that was there with a camera and post them sometime.

I haven't cleaned out the flower beds or the garden yet, but since I work part-time and we homeschool, it was a busy week getting everything done without Hubby's help. I'm glad that the leaves haven't fallen off the trees yet, too. I don't think I could have squeezed one more thing in this week!

I often look forward to the change in seasons because it means a different type of work. As we change from summer to winter, my work changes from gardening and outdoor farm work to more indoor work like knitting, sewing, and spinning. Today is one of the days that I am really looking forward to sitting in front of a warm fire and doing some hand work with the dogs sitting by my feet, Vet2Be reading in the chair next to me, and some pleasant music in the background.