End of January Update

Incredibly long, hard days spent mostly in the barns are how I spent January this year.  It's not over.  I'll be spending much of February the same way.

We have 46 live newborn goats as of yesterday.  They are tucked in with their mothers everywhere we can devise.  All mother goats need feed, hay, and water twice daily.  Babies need a chance to exercise and learn their baby goat dances.  We have three little kids who require bottle feeding three times a day.  Two were abandoned by their mothers, most likely because of harsh weather conditions. 

One was bottle fed "temporarily" while here mother was being treated for massive engorgement.  When the mother goat's udder and teats are painful, the babies cannot nurse successfully.  Once the engorgement was resolved, one of the twins re-learned nursing from her mother.  The other refuses and yells for a bottle.

Mother goat does not want her baby to drink from a baby bottle.  She chews at the bottle and tries to nudge the kid off it.  I'd like to get the kid to revert to Mom, too.  The danger is that the baby will decline and literally die of starvation -- they can be that stubborn.  So, for now, I milk Mamma goat and put her milk in a bottle to feed her little Sarah Burnheart.  We'll resolve it when the kid is old enough to be eating hay and grain and there is more leeway.

This year, weather is a huge factor.  I don't remember a colder Winter since we moved to Virginia.  On some days it has been so frigid that kids froze to death as they were born.  This, even though we've provided shelter inside, out of the wind.  It is heartbreaking.

Yesterday, we had a foot and a half of snow dumped on us, which really impacted on the ability to travel to and from the barns.  Thankfully, it was on a weekend and my husband has been driving me up and down and helping tremendously.

There is a lot of barn clean-up that is being done as energy and time allow.  Last week, little Hillery people and their Mom materialized to do a multi-hour clean-up, with vigor.  For that, I am truly thankful.

Thaw

Most of the snow is melted, except for shady pockets up high.  We've had rain, mud, sunshine, and are back to expected rain and freezing rain in the forecast for today.  I guess the temperatures are on the way back down.

Kidding started on Sunday afternoon with triplet doelings.  We have only one buckling in ten births so far.  I don't know if it has something to do with the buck or if it is a statistical fluke.  If you're looking for me, I'll be down in the barn for the next month, or so.  We'll need names that start with "B" if you want to make some suggestions -- and a lot of female names, please.  I'll let you know how things shake out.

'Am typing with one eye -- and two hands, of course.  Scotch tape is better than an eye patch.  It is the rain in the forecast that makes my eyes so dry and painful.  Anyway, that should cover me for typos in this post.

'Talk to you when I get a chance...

Big Black Crows

For the first time since we built this many-windowed house, big black crows have been coming to the windows and pounding on the glass during the day.  I think it is a group of three.  They've been here since Christmas.

Is it a sign, a symbol, a metaphor?  What do they want?  Do they want me to fly away with them?

'Sorry.  I'm busy right now.

The goats are ready to start kidding.  We're having a little warm spell after brutal cold days.  I just need to keep my strength up.

Go away, crows!

The Sun Stood Still

Today is Winter Solstice and the first day of Winter. It is the shortest day of the year, but tomorrow the day will be a little longer. We are now traveling toward the longest day, June 21st.

Hope is restored as we come out of the dark tunnel. Burn a yule log, celebrate Saturnalia, Christmas, or Hanukkah!

We got about two feet of snow over the weekend. This is unusual or "historical" as reported by the media, for this area in December. It was hard going through the snow to get to the chickens and goats.

The first thing I did was to pour four jugs of warm water into the heated buckets in the goat barn. It was gone within five minutes and only a few goats got a drink. I started to collect snow in a bucket to refill the heated bucket. Little lightbulbs appeared over the heads of the goats, as they realized that they could eat snow to quench their thirst.

Some would only eat snow out of buckets. The higher IQ goats made the connection and began to eat the new snow off the ground. They were VERY thirsty and ate snow for a long time.

After the Ice Storm

Avast!

After yesterday's ice storm, the runnoff got to be a torrent, and the geese and I sailed off down the James River in the wooden goose house.

But only in my fantasy.

Due to the resultant power failure, we had to settle for giving CDT shots and not trimming goat hoofs because there was not enough light in the barn to see what I was doing. We spent the afternoon bundled up in the house reading until the electricity was restored.

This morning, amazingly, there was a small newborn black calf running around happily. I don't know if it was born during or after the ice coated the trees and grass. Can you see why hope is such a tenuous thing and requires signs to keep it alive? I caught a few shooting stars during the night. Shall we call the baby Star? or Meteorite?

Water, Water Everywhere

The goose pond has overflowed its banks and there is shallow water all the way to the goose house. Run-off continues to trickle down from the surrounding hills -- that is, when it is warm enough for water to trickle.

We've had some pretty cold temperatures this week and it's slated to get down below 20 degrees F tonight. There was a freaky snowstorm last Saturday. It started snowing at about 7 a.m. and continued steadily for the next twelve hours, leaving several inches on the ground. During the week, it rained a couple of times so that the snow is gone, but the ice is keeping the livestock from drinking freely. I had to haul water from the greenhouse to the chickens this afternoon.

My bulgy eye is hurting and extremely light sensitive, so my husband is buying me an eye patch at the drugstore today.

Oh, boy. Now I can add to my normal winter farmer ensemble of old Army fatigue jacket, possibly purple pants (I have a pair of nice thick fleece ones), wild greying hat hair and AN EYE PATCH!

Arrrgh! I'll be a fierce pirate/soldier/farmer woman navigating the frozen goose pond. Ahoy, geese!

I like it. Who'd have thought I'd end up such a colorful character. Too bad it's not close to Halloween. I'd probably win some sort of contest for original costume.

December

As I sat down to the computer this morning, it was still dark. The silvery dime of a moon appeared in the upper right side of the window by my desk. Because the dark clouds were being chased away by morning winds, it looked like the moon was falling to the earth.

Of course, it was no such thing. Now that it's light, I see that the moon has maintained its position, although newly formed dark clouds periodically rise to cover it.

The landscape is decidedly December: brown trees and dark grey clouds overlaying a light grey sky.

It's coolish, but not terribly frigid. Yesterday it rained all day, today may be dry.

There is still much work to do inside and outside. I'm on a mission to clip all goat hooves and give booster shots and vitamins. I'm also repairing and washing goat collars, cleaning and sorting spaces and still working on that long job list. I'd better get to it.

First Week of November

'Taking stock:

We thoroughly pressure washed the maternity barn last weekend. It has a concrete floor which hadn't been washed in a couple of years. It's been swept many, many times, so it was surprising how much dirt came up.

It's stocked with bales of pine shavings and hay, clean old bath towels for catching and cleaning off newborns, vet meds in the refrigerator, and new packs of paper baby collars to keep track of when they are born and who their mothers are are in the cabinets along with a sharpie marker.

Mr. Buck Man has gone back home, so our big barn smells okay now.

Most of the red hot peppers have been dried, frozen, made into apricot/jalapeno jam, or given away to friends. One basket remains on the counter. There are still some hot peppers in the garden, but I'm ignoring them.

The chickens have been feasting on the last of the bell peppers and green squash.

It's getting down in the 30s at night and a coyote pack is howling and roaming at 4 a.m. each morning.

We sold off most of the bull calves on Monday. There are probably a couple of small babies, but they need to stay with their cow mamas. I sold one little one and had to listen to Dinky mourning all Monday night and part of Tuesday. I could hear her even with the windows closed.
She's calmed down now, but I'll never do it again. (I promise, Dinky.)

I hope her little fella is doing all right on his new farm. He went to friends.

I've done a lot of cleaning and sorting in the house. This is the time to do it -- before kidding season.

All the brown, limp squash and tomato vines are pulled out of the garden. There is still chard, kale, lettuce, beets, and turnips growing.

The propane tanks attached to the greenhouse are filled, but I'll try not to use propane until it is very cold.

The very long list on the white board has two major items crossed off. Ten more to go.

Last Week in October

The Fall colors are at their height now and this morning's 42 degrees feels crisp.

We've had some colder days and some hotter days and a little rain and wind in the last two.

On the farm, clean-up continues in the barns, the chicken house, and around the yards. The lawns are mowed for the last time this season. All the hay has been baled and put under cover. I'm feeding whatever freeze damaged vegetables are in the garden to the chickens.

In the houses, I am cleaning and sorting, too. The freezers are full enough to get us through without having to do a lot of driving in ice and snow this winter. After more than ten years since the last move, I've finally gotten down to the last parts for furniture, like teak book shelves and a corner computer desk which have been leaning up against a wall in the basement. Once these find their places and are put together, I'll be able to do a thorough cleaning and re-organization of the basement. Gee, it feels like I've just completed a giant jigsaw puzzle.

I had the propane tanks for the greenhouse filled to provide emergency heat if it gets too cold for the small electric heaters to keep the temperature above freezing. All the potted plants are tucked in, but there remains clean-up and organization for those days when it's raining or too cold to want to work outdoors.

We also maintain a little propane at the house in case the electricity goes out. For now, electric is cheaper than propane. I finally caught on last year, when we did not need to use propane at all, that the company was routinely charging us for delivery of propane, even when the tank was full. I don't know how many hundreds of dollars -- probably more than a thousand -- were charged for propane not delivered. Although I made a complaint to the Department that regulates utilities in Virginia, nothing could be done because the Propane Industry is unregulated in the State of Virginia!

As you can probably tell, that still burns me up.

At the time I had finally caught on (I'm slow, evidently, and too trusting) there was a series of articles in the Roanoke Times about similar problems that others were having. I think the State Legislature should be doing something about regulation, but am not aware if they are. So, for now I'm monitoring the gauges on the tanks which show only the percentage left inside. There is no system of reporting usage other than the initial ticket saying how many gallons they delivered. You must more or less know the capacity of the tanks and try to extrapolate from there.

So, I'm trying.

Ta ta.

October

The winds of Autumn showed up just as we changed seasons. I forgot how windy it gets up here after Summer's over. We had a little rain in-between hay harvests. Yesterday's efforts filled the big loft with square bales. There's one more cut field, which will be round-baled, because our old bodies could not take another round of picking up square bales and getting them up in a loft.

Other signs of Autumn: the neighbors are dumping buckets of black walnuts on their driveway to be run over by the pickup truck and hulled.

The local vineyards are picking grapes. I bought some Cabernet Franc yesterday and have already started in on them. The Chardonnay is bubbling along nicely and the Blackberry Wine is almost ready to be bottled.

It's nice and chilly in the mornings and the leaves are just beginning to turn. Yesterday, I watched about twenty five Canada geese fly over the house on their way to somewhere.

Red sweet and hot peppers await processing in the kitchen and the cooler is full of Hubbard squashes and grapes.

I've made some progress in the old house, lugging furniture and accessories out of our basement to furnish it. Windows are getting washed in both houses and we have some plans for improvements on the farm.

I have the impression that we are beginning the preparations for a long, cold winter. Today, I'll begin to clean out the greenhouse and from now until frost, I'll be loading the Mule with plants that have summered on the porches to transport them down the hill to the greenhouse.
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Thought for the day: "Be Yourself; everyone else is already taken." Oscar Wilde