Bringing the Crew Up to Speed

2011. This year has been eventful so far. Particularly on the homestead. And...frankly...particularly in a negative way. We've had our share of successes, too, but *sighing and shaking head.* I LOVE Sam for his energy and focus and wanting to do this for our family, and what it has taught us all. But, what happened in the first few months of this year...well, they are exactly the reason why I didn't want to marry a farmer!

Growing up in a rural ag community, so much hangs on the crops. I remember from a very young age being on edge, worrying about the words "blight" and "drought" etc. coming up in conversations. I remember being so concerned about hard frosts and too much rain, or too little rain, or rain too early or too late in the season. I hated it. I wanted nothing to do with that kind of stress that was completely outside the scope of human control.

And, yet, here I am, back in the middle of it.

True, and thankfully, our livelihood does not depends upon it. But, I'm beginning to wonder if it is just as difficult on me emotionally! Okay, probably not, but still!

We had several does kid early this year. We had so many kids! It was awesome! Every time a new baby anything is born, it's a wonderful experience. I sort of felt, "Wow, we might come ahead in the game this time." We had several stillborns, at least one for each kidding, which was not fun, but as we only had one batch of doubles, it wasn't a big deal. Just one of those things. UNTIL the boys started dying.

It was concerning to me that all the stillborns were male, but when the other males started getting sick, it was a big deal to me. All these babies had the same sire and it was FREAKING me out. Was there some serious genetic defect he was passing on to his male babies??

One thing I've learned this year is that goats, as herd animals, won't manifest symptoms of illness unless extremely ill. I mean, there are symptoms, if you pay attention to your herd. You can tell if one of your animals is looking or acting "off," but if they are sick with something you haven't seen before, if you find them acting ill, like lethargic, lying on the ground, moaning, those types of things, your goat is already at death's door. To let on earlier is a sign of weakness reflecting on the entire herd, and the instinctive programming won't allow that. So, at death's door is how we kept finding our kids. It got so bad, I almost didn't want to enter the barn everyday, I was so concerned about what I would find. I got to the point that I didn't know if I could handle one more goat dying.

Every time, Sam and I would try to nurse them back to health. Sam's medical background is very helpful around the homestead, and it was nice to feel like we were helping a little. But, in the end, there was nothing we could do. Each time, we'd bring them in the house, tube feed them, give IV fluids, work to keep them warm. Every time they would improve, look like they were getting stronger and healing, and then....

It's rough raising animals that are "exotic" enough to the United States that vets don't know all that much about them, so we were doing a lot of trial and error and relying on the internet a lot. Finally, we were able to capture a stool sample and the vet did finally diagnose a parasite. So, we knew what to do with the rest of them, thankfully, but not before we lost three little boys.

And THEN...grrrr. In December we decided we needed a barn dog to fend off the possibility of the fox who decimated our chicken brood last year, including our rooster, returning. As it turned out, dogs are not the best guard animals for goats. One of our favorite kid girls was lost to this animal last month. Needless to say, we no longer have a barn dog.

Next adventure: ducks. Sam's been very concerned about our pest population, particularly the Japanese beetles that have been mentioned in previous posts. We don't want to use pesticides, so it takes getting a little creative, and looking into several different methods. One of them is DUCKS. Who knew? :) Not me. Apparently, they are great foragers. So, we invested in 20 Indian Runner eggs to incubate and add the results to our farm. UNFORTUNATELY, the egg turner got unplugged at some point, which left us with ONE surviving duck.

Dubbed "Norman the Lonely," :) he is something of a miracle. He should not have survived, and yet he did! We have our suspicions about his...um...soundness :) but he's kind of fun to have around, nonetheless.

Here he is, starting to lose his baby feathers, and his downy white is starting to come in. We don't even know if he's really a boy :) but he makes us laugh.

Norman loves to follow his people around. His favorite place to be is between our feet. LOL. This has resulted in more than one inadvertent kick that has sent Norman tumbling. Not enough to deter him, because he still walks there. Whatever makes him happy, I guess.

To make up for our losses with the Indian Runners, Sam ordered some Welsh Harlequin ducklings. We decided to not mess around with incubating eggs this time. (Hooray!) They arrived earlier in the week. Aren't they sweet?

We are also taking on the challenge of pigs again this year. I used to love pigs. Now, not so much. YUCK. But, it's difficult to argue with the striking argument the freezer full of delicious makes.



Sam's been fantastic, listening to all of my complaints and trying to rectify them. I didn't want the pigs rooting up the pasture land. I didn't want the huge holes in ground. I didn't want to deal with the smell if I could avoid it at all. I wanted the feeding and watering system improved. :) I really did not want to do pigs again. So, he did his homework, as he is so good at doing, and found solutions across the board. He continually impresses me.

I still don't like the pigs. Which is good, I guess, because they will be dinner someday. :) But, at least they aren't a "problem" anymore.

So, there you go, crew. :) That's what we've been doing around here, as far as the animals go. I still need to fill you in on all the work Sam's done in the garden, but that will be another post. Fun times! :) We love our little Serenity Farm!