Goats in coats

 We've had some very chilly nights here on the farm recently.

 Here in South Louisiana when the temps drop below freezing and we get a good frost cover on the ground, it might as well be a snow storm for us.

  I finally prevailed over the Big Onion and put a coat on Gwen during some of the colder nights. Big Onion is of the opinion that if we put coats on the goats, they'll never grow proper winter coats to protect them from the cold (and he's probably right about this though I'll never admit it to him!).

   My poor little Gwen has a terrible cough though that we just cannot get rid of. We've been to the vet twice and tried antibiotics, herbs, homeopathics, and vitamins, but she just cannot shake it. The coughing comes and goes in fits and seems worse when she overexerts herself. Otherwise, she seems to be a happy, healthy goat. I'm just afraid that this is a manifestation of her CAE that will only get worse over time.

  With that in mind, I put my foot down and bundled my little girl up in one of the Sheltie's nice warm coats overnight. Goats are much deeper in body than dogs so it wasn't a perfect fit, but it got the job done. We also set up a couple nice cozy areas with a deep beds of hay so that all the goats could snuggle down for the night.

Happy Gwen hanging with her auntie Thea after a cozy night in her goat coat.

A possum's tale

 Over on Facebook, I posted a picture of this little guy who decided to join us on our last turkey processing day.

This little possum was obviously very young and confused. I went as far as nudging the little guy with a stick and he didn't move. 

Well, a few days later, I found this in the backyard. I can assure you that this one is not playing possum. She(?) was huge and very dead. I can only assume that this was the mother of the little guy pictured above and that the pups made an orphan of that baby. I disposed of the body and thought we were done with these varmints for a while until I saw Sonny snacking away at something a few days later. Yep, another day, another dead possum.

I guess I can't complain too much. These varmints are pests on the farm who will steal eggs, eat young chicks, and even kill adult birds if given the chance. I just wish the dogs would quit rolling around in the rotting carcasses of their spoils! Yick!!

Luciano and Amelia: Art models in training!

We like Reddit.com. If you've never seen it, I won't ruin it for you -- just go check it out. It's best when first experienced by just blindly jumping in. It's a strange, bizarre place but occasionally you stumble upon something truly fascinating. There's a subreddit called "Reddit Gets Drawn." People submit photos, and other people draw them ... for fun!

I couldn't help myself, so I submitted this photo of the kids that Kaela took last week ...

And here are some of the submissions that we got back!

User GodlessGravy submitted this one -- and they totally nailed it with Amelia's airplane ears! Fantastic!

And then this one, which I absolutely adore, from DoomedJannisary. I thought their personalities were perfectly captured here, with Luciano looking so serious and Amelia looking like an absolute doofus. Ha! They have a page over at Deviant Art with some really incredible photography and other sketches.

And lastly, this one from user OhBonnie who said, "I only had time for a quick sketch." Quick sketch? This is amazing! They have a Flickr page with some more of their art. Really amazing watercolors!

Anyway, we thought were just tickled pink by the responses and thought we'd share them with you all (with the artists' permission, of course!) Many thanks to each of them for taking their time to draw our little furry friends.

I can't say this is the last time I'll be submitting a photo of farm like for them to draw, so hopefully we'll have some more in the future!

Rabbit Update

 Last weekend, I finally got around to adding an extra layer of fencing around the big rabbit tractor so that we could get rid of the xpens we had surrounding the whole thing. Having to unlatch and move the extra layer of fencing every time we wanted to move the tractor was getting old. Hopefully the added layer of protection will keep the rabbits in and the predators and nosey goats out.

That same day I discovered that the rabbits had taken it upon themselves to start building their own housing. This is always a possibility when housing adult females on the ground. That hole was deep enough for me to sink my arm all the way to the elbow!

  Right now we have four does and a buck living together colony style on the pasture. So far everyone is getting along just fine. As long as we move the tractor on a regular basis, we don't have too much trouble with the bunnies digging. The only problem we have is that since they are housed with a male, we aren't sure when these girls are going to kindle (give birth) for the first time. We plan on putting them in the raised cages in poultry house when the time comes. Best we can do right now is just a keep a close eye out for any of the girls plucking out chest and stomach fur and trying to build a nest.

This is one of the pretty chinchilla colored bunnies from our last group. We have a male and a female in this color, and I am really looking forward to seeing what colors these guys produce. Following our philosophy of letting nothing go to waste, Big Onion has been dabbling in hide tanning. We are hoping that these rabbits' offspring should produce some really beautiful furs.

Just our goats clownin around

  It's getting chilly out there! 

Gwen says a color coordinated scarf does wonders to keep a little goat warm on a chilly winter morning! 

 Luciano prefers hats. 

"Pretty cunning, don't ya think?"

Turkey Time

 Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and we have already started processing turkeys.

  We ended up with about 16 to sell and all are already accounted for. Next year, we will have to increase our numbers again. We have even talked about raising two batches and keeping the first batch in the freezer until turkey eatin' season rolls around. This year we decided to stick to the faster growing broad breasted whites and bronzes. We are hoping that by next year we will have a few of our very own farm bred heritage Bourbon Reds to offer in addition to the commercial breeds.

  We learned a couple really important lessons about turkey rearing this year. For one, darker birds really are harder to pluck and end up with a carcass that just isn't as clean and pretty looking as the whites. We also discovered that you get what you pay for with poultry feed. We made the mistake of trying a new brand of feed with the young turkeys that was slightly less expensive and saw an almost immediate halt in their growth. Finally, we learned that giving vaccinations for fowl pox is absolutely essential when raising turkeys. We actually lost a couple of birds to this early on and a few others had to be very carefully nursed back to health. I think the combination of these things resulted in us having smaller birds than we would have liked in the end.

  Speaking of Bourbon Reds, our two adult toms must know that it is that time of the year because they have decided to start harassing Luna. Poor Luna is so well trained now not to be aggressive that if I'm not paying attention, those toms end up chasing her around the pasture, feathers puffed and looking ridiculous. I actually saw one of the toms trip on a chicken and do a full face forward tumble while trying to go after the dog. It's hard to look dignified with your big ugly turkey head face down in the dirt!

Don't fret for poor Luna, though. One word from me, and she is more than happy to go after those birds barking, snarling, and pulling out mouthfuls of feathers until those suckers back down. I took the picture above just after Luna read that turkey the riot act. You can see him way back there next to Josie, missing breakfast for being such a jerk. We will probably be processing one of those toms for our own table pretty soon. Hopefully that will help knock the other guy down a couple notches and make life easier for our poor farm dog.

Copper wire particles and our goats: Take 2

  It has been about 6 months since we gave all the goats a dose of copper wire particles, so we decided it was about time to treat them again. If you'll recall, last time didn't go so smoothly. This time I was going out by myself, but I was determined to make things go as smoothly as possible this time.

  We had purchased the large cow sized pills of copper to save money. I started by weighing out the copper and packing it into small gelatin capsules. This was easy to do with the help of a tiny plastic funnel on which I had widened the end slightly.
 
 The normal dosage for copper wire particles for goats is 2 grams for young or mini goats and 4 grams for adults. We decided to split the difference for Gwen and Eve and give them 3 grams each since they are both somewhere in between (around 50-60lbs).

  The secret to my success this time was supposed to be this. It's called a "pet piller," and it works great for cats and dogs. I have even been using it with Gwen on a regular basis with no problem. I was soon to learn that not all our goats are as easy to handle as our Gwen.