Fixing the Solar Light Post

We seem to buy new solar lights every three years or so because the plastic piece that attaches the light to the post gets broken.

I thought about what I could use to fix it and came up with this.

I removed the screw and the broken plastic piece from the bottom. I drilled a hole in a PVC cap, and screwed it to the bottom of the light using the original screw.

I haven't spray painted the cap yet. I did manage to spray paint the PVC pipe, which ended up being almost exactly the same color as the light itself.

Next I'll cut the PVC pipe to the size I need, and place the pipe on the rebar we have pounded in the flower beds.

Those little plastic spikes don't work in our rocky soil so we've been using rebar or 1/2" electrical conduit pounded into the ground instead.

The best part about the rebar and conduit is that they stay straight, the plastic spikes never did keep the light upright.

Happy Steer

The steer loves the baby goats. They know it.

Unfortunately I don't have photos of the kids jumping all over him, which he seems to enjoy.

Here's a photo of one taking an afternoon rest with his big buddy.

He loves them so much that he licks all the Blu Kote off their disbudded heads!

If we pick one up or if we are feeding the little bottle kid, he's always there to check us out and make sure his little friends are okay.

Mastitis, Again

It's been a long few days. Four kids were born last Monday (4/22). We dried them off and got them in sweaters like we always do.

We made sure they had their first drink of colostrum, like we always do.

Gave them each a squirt of Nutri-Drench, like we always do.

The next day they seemed a little slow, but doing okay. Zoe is a first freshener and seemed to be a bit confused about the 2 kids at first.

Then she was okay.

Wednesday we lost one of Misty's kids. When I put Misty on the stand that night I realized she had a bad mastitis infection in her left udder.

It's been crazy since then!

The vet came out on Thursday. She's wonderful and we love her. She gave her a shot of Excede (a broad spectrum antibiotic) and Banamine (for pain and inflammation).

We were given instructions to strip out her udder twice a day and warm compress the udder twice a day. Also, give Equioxx paste (non-steroidal anti-inflamatory) twice a day to reduce the swelling in her udder, help control the pain, and help bring her 105F fever down. We also have to administer Spectramast L C once a day into her left teat.

By Saturday night Misty was worse so I texted the vet.

Dr. Wright came out again on Sunday morning because she's that type of vet... kind and caring.

She explained that there are four main types of mastitis and she had treated for the most common, and more easily treatable, first three. Apparently Misty had the fourth type. Good thing we called.

She placed a line for IV Ringers Lactate (Misty hadn't been eating or drinking), then she started on Baytril injectable (diluted with LRS) once daily, and Oxytetracycline injectable (LA 200) once daily.

Unfortunately she was so dehydrated that the line didn't stay in and she had to come out again on Monday and put it in the other leg.

Here she is today. The only thing she will eat right now is bananas.
So that's what we are giving her!

She seems to be doing better. We know she'll live, we're just waiting to see if she sloughs the lining of her left udder or if it heals.

Her surviving kid is doing great. She's on a bottle because the vet didn't want her on her mom. Thankfully we have Annie, who is a power milker. She's already feeding two kids, but has no trouble giving us an extra 1/2 gallon to feed the bottle kid.

I think part of the problem is that we couldn't get the mastitis vaccinations we needed last year because the company switched owners and stopped making it for a while. We didn't give them their vaccinations at the usual time. By the time I got the meds, I completely forgot about vaccinating.

All the other does have been started on their sequence of boosters and vaccinations now. Prevention is always best.

All the links to the meds are active if you are interested in looking up what they do.

A New Duck

We were given a duck by a neighbor. She had three ducks as pets and for their eggs. One was killed by a mink or racoon. Another had it's bill ripped off by the same animal. We took that one to the vet to have it put down.

You may think that is odd since ducks are farm animals, but since these were pets. It was best for the family to have the vet take care of Cornwallis (female duck with a male name, long story, but she was the favorite).

My friend was so worried about the last duck that she asked us to take her.

Bianca is the black and white duck. She has fit into the flock without any trouble. She's the only one with a name since we don't name our chickens or ducks unless they happen to have a 'personality'.

We were lucky to find a vet who cared for 'exotic' animals. Farm animals are considered exotic if they are pets instead of living on a farm. At $60 it wasn't cheap to have the vet put down Cornwallis, but it was comforting to the family to know that she was cared for like any other severely injured, and beloved, family pet.

Goat Kids 2013

The kids seem to be healthy and strong. I think they are stunning little goats again this year!

The buckling is in the striped sweater in the back.

The doeling is in the blue sweater in the front.

They are a little skittish, which isn't unusual for kids from this doe. Once we hold them, they calm down and are fine, but some days it's a little hard to get close to them.

They both have beautiful backs, stand correctly (the doeling especially stands beautifully without any stacking), and have a gentle slope on their rump.

Vet2Be won't be showing this year, he is too old for 4-H. The little doeling would do well around here so we hope she gets sold to someone who has the chance to show her off!

Spring Worming for the Goats

In the photos below you'll notice that there is alot of hair loss on our buck. That is one way we can tell that our goats need worming.

See the thin hair on his withers?

He is also rubbing himself on every fence and post because he is so itchy.

We wormed with Ivomec Plus because it does a very good job in our area. It's extra-label use for goats so check with your vet, just like we checked with ours, to make sure it is okay for your herd.

We follow up with a week of Mineral Max because we know that in our area most goats don't get enough copper.

We buy Mineral Max from The Farm Store because it seems to be the cheapest place for us to get it.

We also worm the does right after they kid because the stress of kidding seems to increase the worm load. The does also get a week of Mineral Max after they kid to help them stay healthy and strong while they are feeding kids and we are milking them. We keep them on the Mineral Max once a week throughout their milking and we seem to have fewer health problems.

Goats Who Unlock Fences

We have no idea how the buck and wether are opening the gate and getting into the back yard. But they are!

Crazy goats!

This is our temporary fix until we can figure out something better. 'Better' means we don't have to take off a bungee cord each time we head to the barn. Not the easiest task when we have our hands full of things.

See the clip at the top? That's what they manage to open. We haven't caught them doing it, but we catch them in the backyard (and in the neighbor's yard) often enough that we know they can.

The bungee is holding them in for now. We would rather have them out eating the grass then penned up eating hay, so we're stuck with this for a little while.

Hubby tried to add the chain link gate latch, but it doesn't fit on our fence. We need something the goats can't open, and something that we can open from either side of the gate. Something we can do one-handed when necessary.

I'm thinking about taking the photo to IFA and asking one of the nice folks there to come up with a solution. They always do their best to help down there, which is why I keep going back.

If you have any ideas, feel free to post them below! There has to be something easy that I don't know about, or haven't thought of.