Farm Update.

Wow!

It's been awhile.

Everyday I think, 

"I'm going to blog today."

Then it's bedtime and I think 

"Crap. I didn't blog."

Or I'm in no mood to blog. Things have happened during the day and the mood has passed.

I need to be in the mood to write, probably like any other writer.

So I'm in the mood to write so you might find several posts in the next few days to bring ya'll up to speed on what's been happening.

First things first.

The farm.

Everyone is pretty ok on the farm.

In my opinion I have too many chickens at the moment. I'm getting too many eggs and for some reason no market for them.

We sent one of the wethers to freezer camp.  That's what we have them for, but it's still hard to do.  Jamie keeps telling me that I have to toughen up (strange, this coming from a kid). But my heart is tender when it comes to animals. I keep saying that I could become a vegetarian.

That's kinda hard in a family of meatatarians. 

We're keeping the other wether for a bit longer. But he's got to go soon.

The twins, Kevin and Stuart were doing well and fitting in well, when Kevin got sick.

It started with a lung infection that would not go away. When it finally went away he started with skin infections. Contagious skin infections that should have gone away on its own.

But after months and months of treatment and it just kept getting worse. We had to make a decision.

He had to be put down.  The vet thinks that because he was smaller than his brother, he might have had immunity issues to start off with. Then when he had a lung infection it was the last straw with his tiny ,immune system.  With the vet's help, we even tried fixing him from the inside out. Trying to fix the underlying problem.  But it didn't work.  We think he was too far gone. 

So Kevin is running in greener pastures at the moment.

While the vet was here one day for Kevin, I asked if he thought Peanut was ready to breed the girls because I found he wasn't looking too "bucky".

The vet said that I might have to look for plan "B" for this year.  

We were devastated. And so was the rest of the goat community in the area that counts on our Alpine buck for breeding. We were all thinking that we were going to have to deal with airplane ears next spring (yes we are goat snobs).

Then I started counting the days.  Maggie came in heat first.  21 days after, no heat! 

A week later Azelle came into heat. 21 days later...no heat!!! And with Azelle this meant that she had completely healed from her difficult delivery.

So this means that we will have babies next spring with NO AIRPLANE EARS!!! Woohoo!!

I cannot wait to see what cute babies we'll have next year.

So I guess Peanut's looks are deceiving.

We're not sure about Cait yet.  I haven't seen her come in heat. So I'm not sure if Peanut did his duty before I could even notice she was in heat. Or maybe she hasn't come in heat yet.

I'm hoping for the latter.

So that's the update for the farm.

Pretty boring stuff. But at least you're up to snuff on that.

Have a Blessed Evening

Lisa

Goat Trip!

Earlier this winter we had the misfortune of having to put Pisnak down.

He had major issues with his joints and hooves.  We figure that when he was a kid we had fed him milk from Febe that contained the CAE virus.  So even though he was a wonderful buck, I couldn't stand to see him in such pain. We even tried pain killers but it got that even they didn't work.

 So we chose to euthanize him.  Such is life on a farm.

It's sad, but it happens. 

We decided to get another buck from where we had gotten Pisnak.  

A while ago when Hazy Day farm got a new doe I contacted the owner, Alex, that someday I would be getting a buck from that doe.  Little did I know it was going to be sooner, rather than later.

The minute we found out that Pisnak was going to go to the great pasture in the sky, I contacted Alex to put in our order for a new buck from that doe.  He wasn't cheap, but after while you have to decide if you're going to breed just for milk or for milk and quality goats.

We're going after quality goats and milk.

So fast forward 5 months and the future herdsire of Spring Peeper Farm is born!!!

He's more beautiful that I imagined!  He's going to make beautiful babies!

He's in another province.

He's a three hour ferry ride and overnight stay away (since the ferry only crosses once a day)

 or a 6 hour drive one way.....:( 

We tried to arrange transportation but with our crazy schedule, Easter approaching and Alex's crazy schedule it was proving to be impossible.

Finally Dave said, " Let's bite the bullet and go on a Round Goat Trip!"

So last Saturday we left at 6 a.m. for Moncton, New Brunswick.

It was a beautiful day with only a few flurries in the forecast...yeah, we've heard that before.

We actually made record time getting there.  We were supposed to meet Alex for the "drop" at 1:30 and we got there at 11:30.  So we ate lunch and then just sat in 

the Irving parking lot waiting for the  "drop".

Alex arrived on time and we did the exchange, goat for money. Took pictures, exchanged a few pleasantries and we were off again.

The Exchange of goods.

  

I figured we'd be home by 8pm.  At the latest.

Well that was before Dave spotted a HUGE and NEW Princess Auto.

  So we stopped and Dave shopped.  

We left and then had to stop at a pet store so Jamie could buy some fish.

By this time is was 5ish and the clouds were closing in.

Technically we were 3 hours away from home. But the snow started to fall. The roads were still clear.

But we left and hi-tailed it for home.  We stopped in Coldbrook (which is 2 hours away from home) for take out Wendy's and left.

  The road was still kinda clear, then about 10 minutes out of Coldbrook we were met with this.....

What should have taken 2 hours took 4!!!  We got home a few minutes before midnight.

 The picture doesn't do the road conditions justice. It was even worse than what it looks 

like in this picture.

But we got home safe. Thank God!

So the new bucklings name is Hazy Day Something Special  or as he's going to be known to us...Peanut.

There's a story behind why we call him Peanut.

But that's for another post.

Cate welcoming her future beau.

This shows he gorgeous and unique colouring.


Now to get Peeper a new friend.....but we'll wait till the snow is gone for that one.

Have a Blessed Evening
Lisa