It isn't raining rain, you know...

...It's raining violets, asparagus, kale, chard, spinach, iris, peonies...

Early yesterday morning, I walked into the area near the goose house and let the geese out.  By about 1 p.m., the pond had overflowed and the geese were swimming in and out of the house.  It remains flooded and there is a small river forming beyond in the pasture.

The chicken house had a little seepage, forming muddy areas.  The last batch of chicks are in a coop with a raised wooden floor, so they're high and dry.  The ducklings are in a dirt floor coop, so are in their glory, making a big wet mess.

It will continue raining today and possibly tomorrow.  The James River is overflowing its banks. 

Everything is so green that it nearly hurts your eyes.  Grass is high in the hayfields.

It's been blessedly cool since May began.  We've done a lot of farm jobs.  Unfortunately, our recently graveled driveway has some ruts due to rain runoff.  The plastic garden is improving day by day. 

Spring, Continued

We've had some hot days and some moderate days and some decidedly chilly days so far this month.  That's Spring for ya. 

The main thing is that it has rained a good bit of the time and that makes things grow.  After the big electrical storm last week, large trees showed green leaves and the redbuds revealed pink.  The weeping cherry burst into pink blossoms.  Peonies not only sprouted up from the ground, they already have their little globe buds.  Lilacs are just barely in bloom, and so it goes.

The plastic garden was pretty much torn to shreds by winter winds this year.  It looks to be in total disarray, but I am slowly putting it back in order with my grandson's help.  I did a lot of clean up and pulled weeds.  We brought in new heavy junk to keep the replacement plastic in place.  It's progressing.  Cattle panels attached to fence posts serve the dual purpose of keeping plastic down and of providing vertical growing stations.  Peas, cucumbers, tomatoes and squash will be planted at their bases.

The peas I planted are already up.  Ten blueberry bushes have new growth and blossoms.  Different varieties of berries have leafed out and have suckers growing at the base of the main plants.  We've been eating the beautiful kales that overwintered in a circle planted in the Fall.  Lettuces and other leafy crops are just tiny plantlets in the bed I weeded.

The six ducklings have graduated to a coop in the chicken house with the sole female mallard who had been out on the pond.  Their messes had progressed to the point where this became necessary.  Eventually, all ducks will go outside on the pond.  They are still yellow fuzz, with feathers just beginning to form.  I'd want them all white and feathered before they are introduced to deep water.

The chicks, on the other hand, are tiny but beautifully feathered out.  They remain in the large brooder in the shed and won't go to the chicken house until they are big enough to defend themselves.

Easter

I didn't realize that March 31st would be Easter when I filled the incubator with eggs three weeks ago.  The hatch began on time and we have little chicks.

The chickens are laying a lot of eggs and the geese and duck have also started hiding their eggs in odd places around the pond.

There was a big sale on ducklings last week when my husband and grandson were in Tractor Supply.  We have a box of quackers in the basement because it is still a bit chilly to try to moderate the temperature in the brooders in the shed.  Oh, believe me, I am looking forward to a time when the nighttime temperatures will stay above freezing consistently!

After snow and sleet last week, the apricot and peach trees are showing buds and the magnolia tree is actually blooming.

I've started cleaning up the vegetable garden and bought seeds for planting.

So, this year we have all the stereotypical Easter elements and we can clearly see where all the traditions started -- with Mother Nature!

March

March came in like a lion and, so far, is still acting pretty lion-like.   It is very cold and we are expecting snow today and tomorrow.

February

We continue to work hard each day taking care of the new baby goats and their mothers.

The weather has been occasionally blustery, wet, and cold.  The first daffodils are blooming in front of the greenhouse.  I am beginning to prune bushes despite the cold and hope to be able to keep up once Spring weather arrives.

Goat Psychology 101

It got up to 74 degrees this afternoon, but I feel a little chill creeping in now.  It will rain and get much cooler tonight and the rest of the week may even be colder than normal for this time of year.

Yesterday was also balmy.  We are having a short-lived “Spring” in January.  I raked out the big barn and let some of the mother goats and babies out of their maternity stalls to get some exercise.  All the mothers and babies in the Green Barn got to go out into its fenced yard.  We are somewhere over thirty kids with some more still to come.  Two were born today so far.  I am glad I was strict on how long the buck could stay, because I appear to be coping pretty well, despite the intense management and record keeping.  My husband has been helping out.

Here is something I told him this morning after he made the mistake of dragging the new mother away from the place where her new kids were to set her up in a clean stall:

Never try to move the mother goat first.  Move the kids to the stall and let her follow.

She is in a sea of hormones.  Goats, at first, do not identify their kids visually.  They use smell and the taste of the afterbirth they’ve been licking off to establish which kids are theirs – especially in a herd of any size. 

If you pick up a newborn or even a week old goat kid, its mother becomes confused and searches for it.  She knows who you are but does not look up into your arms for her baby.  If it isn’t on the ground, she just can’t figure out where it is!  So, let her follow you and search for her kids on the ground in the new stall.  This will also have the effect of saving your back when you are wrestling with a frantic new mother. 

When Don dragged the new mother to the new stall, where I had taken the babies in advance of the struggle, she just ran back to the place she’d been licking them off.  All that was in her head is that he’d taken her away from her kids!  She didn’t even see them there in the newly prepared stall.  I had to talk her down and make a fuss over the babies to get her to sniff them and calm down from the trauma of being dragged away.  Hopefully, all is well.  They’re certainly making a good attempt at nursing.  If her colostrum comes in quickly they’ll all be happy and well.

 

January

'Just popping in to say that kidding began on Friday.  So far, it's been slow and steady -- eleven births from five does.  Of course, that is just two days in.  We won't know what today holds until I get down to the barns.

All the preparations done in the Fall, with my brother's help, have paid off in terms of ease of housing does with their young.  And everytime I look at the full spring-fed waterer, I think of him.  Thanks!

I'll take some pictures at some point.  The kiddies are too cute not to share.  For now, I'm trying to balance doing what needs to be done with taking care of myself.

Winter and Waiting

Winter came precisely on cue this year.  On Solstice, the 21^st of December, the air turned bitterly cold.  The wind blew all remaining leaves off the trees and there were snow flurries all day long.  Thankfully, no snow stayed on the ground.  The wind continued through the night.  I heard a loud bang at about 3 a.m. and will look around to figure out what got blown around at morning’s light.

The clouds hang low and ominous.  They look heavy and thick.  We are pressed upon by the charcoal sky.

So, now I will check the goats to see if my theory about kidding holds.  They seem to wait for uncomfortably cold weather to start dropping kids.  There may be a practical reason.  Maybe bad germs aren’t as likely to cause problems.  Who knows?  Maybe it is just to force the goatkeeper to suffer from painfully frozen fingers – but I doubt it.

At any rate, it won’t be long now. 

December

It is unseasonably warm.  Daytime temps go from 50 to 70.  We've had no rain in over a month.  Well, unless you count 1/100th of an inch in some places in our region.

I always get edgy when we are in a drought.

Each morning, I stand outside the big barn as the goats go up the hill in single file.  I'm rudely oggling udders, watching for signs of impending kidding.  Our guard llama, Zorio, apes me.  He also stands and inspects the troops.  Then, he follows up the hill, going around to an open gate, as he can't get under the fence opening the herd uses.  He meets up with them and stays with them all day, watching for danger.

Last week, I handled a newborn heifer calf, marveling at nature's perfection.  How is it that complicated biological systems come in cute little packages?  She is tiny, but nursing vigorously, and will likely be a little hulk in a month.

Gracie is in the neighboring pasture, obviously wanting to join the rest of the cows.  She's doing great, but I want her to enjoy the priviledge of grain and hay just for her.  Once she is again in her herd, she'll have to fend for herself. 

Amazing Gracie

I found her accidentally when I went down into the valley to treat a bull calf.  She was in the brush on a hillside near the treeline, curled up in a little black ball.

This was the valley where cows parked calves during the day and that was definitely the case with the bull calf.  His mother visited him several times a day to nurse him then left him to his own devices the rest of the time.  I wanted to give him a shot and band him and we managed to catch him and take care of those tasks.  Afterwards, I noticed the other calf.

It seems that Gracie had been abandoned.  She could not stand or walk and was totally blind.  She rolled down the hill, startled when I approached.  She appeared to be about six months old, but starved and dehydrated, as she couldn’t get to water on her own.

We got her to a flat area near a fenced off sinkhole and realized that she was too heavy to pick up and drive up to the corral at the top of the hill.  Even a group of men were unable to figure out a way to move her with the tractor, so we made her a little pen with a tarp covering to protect her from the sun and rain.  I became her “Meals on Wheels,” driving down twice a day to deliver water, hay, and a small portion of sweet feed. 

Calves have the instinct to run away from humans and other animals when they are young.  It is a good instinct.  But Gracie must have just panicked without the ability to flee.  She was tentative about the feed at first, never having had it.  Soon, she seemed to look forward to the sound of my motor in the morning and evening.  It was a good month before I saw her try to move around the pen.  She was managing to crawl to a dry area under the tarp.  Soon, I’d see her out in the sun beyond the tarp.  However, I wondered what I’d do when rain or snow impeded my driving on the fairly steep hillside.  Although I realized that this was an uneconomical hobby, I really couldn’t bring myself to re-abandon her and let her die.

The bull calf had finally followed his mother up the hill and Gracie was all alone except for my visits.  She let me pet her and rub her curly head.  Her eyes were very damaged, but she seemed to be very good at sensing where I and the food and water were.  She was responding quite nicely.

Last week, Gracie actually was trying to get up on her legs for a few seconds.  The blood circulation must have been cut off after months of lying down.  That was a happy sight, but when she was able to stand up to drink from the water bucket, I was certainly amazed.  I had no thought that she’d ever stand up.

When she began to walk around the pen, staggering in a stiff legged forward movement, I was still more surprised.  After a couple of days, I left the pen gate open so that she could graze on the grass.  She ventured out and began a multi-day climb to the top of the hill.  I’d drive down to wherever she was on a given day and deliver her food and water.  She was visibly exhausted each evening and she just lay on the hill to rest. 

Yesterday, she made it to the top.  There is an automatic waterer there, which she evidently has mastered as she rejected the water bucket.  She’s got hay and feed and will, I hope, continue to improve in condition.  The herd will cycle back to that field in a couple of months and with luck she’ll be reintegrated.

Gracie once was lost, but now she’s found; was blind, but now she (almost) sees.