Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[NH Homesteader]

Wow you've been super busy! I didn't do anything farm related today except my daily chores.

It's so easy to let extra animals take over and all of the sudden your feed bill is frightening! I had to sell a few goats this year for that reason. I only have one now that doesn't totally have a purpose. She kind of does, she's my herd queen and she's got a good head on her shoulders so she keeps the other, more crazy does in check!

Farrowing in November? Brr! Haha how cold are your winters? Do people buy piglets in winter? I guess it doesn't matter as much there as here. Life kind of stops in winter here. Lots of people raise pigs, very few will tolerate keeping them over winter.

 

[baymule]

What we call winter, @NH Homesteader would laugh at.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Haha I bet. We had a snowstorm on Halloween last year. That was just uncalled for.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

@NH Homesteader - We've barely just dropped out of the 90's now! We could still be wearing shorts in November, lol. I'm south of Houston... but I am praying for a rough winter. ( I know - be careful what you wish for) We need a hard freeze, we haven't had one in several years. They aren't fun because we are not set up for them here....but it does help to kill off a bunch of pests, and we need less pests around here! The garden always does better in the spring after a hard freeze or two.

Today we went and picked up 40 square bales of hay. I don't really like paying $200 for 40 bales of hay when $200 would buy me 4 - 5 round bales. The pasture goats always have a round bale to work on, but the goats that are in individual pens are so much easier to feed if I can take a couple flakes off a square bale. I'll be going back and picking up some round bales from this guy this weekend.. or soon after. It's nice to have a permanent hay guy again. My DH works with the hay guys wife - so it should work out well for both of us.

Have to clean out a place to put it tomorrow. It's still sitting on the trailer right now.... thank goodness there's NO rain in the forecast. Bizarre weather for us, for sure, lol!

 

[NH Homesteader]

We had a freeze last night, 30 degrees! It's supposed to warm up today, might hit 65 even, lol.

It's so hard when you don't have a regular hay guy! Ours from last year jacked up his prices this year, taking advantage of the drought and ensuing panic. He got almost as much hay as he did last year, he just wants to make more off it. Grr.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Can not imagine a freeze right now. Geeze Louise! We sometimes get a really cold winter. Some years back we even had a white Christmas. That year the snow went all the way to the beach on Galveston island. It was weird seeing snow on the sand with waves breaking over it. That particular snow stayed around for 3 or 4 days. Not normal for this far south. I'd love to have a winter like that again. Typically our coldest months are Jan/Feb, but who knows anymore?

Woke up to a misty rain and guess who didn't put away OR cover the hay last night - grrrrr! Thankfully, it was just a light mist and I got a tarp over it pretty quickly. I'll uncover it this afternoon when the chance of rain is gone and be sure it's really dry before I stack it in the barn.

Trying to make myself remember to do the coconut oil/turmeric thing and to take a vitamin C every now and then. I'm just awful about that stuff. I do it for a day or so and then go back to my old slacker habits. I did have a smoothie yesterday afternoon. I just used a little goat milk, some blueberries and this stuff that DH drinks every day. ((It's an organic green "superfood" powder that has every veggie known to man, with ginger, turmeric, cinnamon... I couldn't begin to name them all, but he's been using it for years. Even with all his health issues every time he has blood work done his inflammation level is very low. I - who have NO (known) health issues have an inflammation level that's very high... Maybe I should start taking the green stuff every day.)) Enough about that!

Happy Tuesday, ya'll!

 

[NH Homesteader]

I spent one Christmas in Florida and I hated it! Christmas should be cold and snowy! Not that it always is here but more often than not it is.

Hope your hay dries out! I hate when that happens!

 

[baymule]

It is in the 60's at night and in the 80's in the day. I am loving this! We have the AC on right now, but we'll open the windows when we go to bed. We didn't turn the AC on until 6 this evening.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Haha! It didn't hit 60 during the day here today. A/C is stored for winter.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I have officially bred two does! (Well...not me exactly...it was a buck that did the "official" breeding.) But, I facilitated it. I bred two Kinder does to my Kinder buck. We'll get F-2 kinder kids out of this cross. I love my Kinder buck - he's the healthiest and hardiest goat on the place. I think I've only wormed him two times in his life and maybe trimmed his feet once...if that, and he's around 4 years old. My Nubian buck on the other hand has feet that need more attention. He's pretty hearty, but still needs wormed a couple times a year. I think it helps that the bucks don't have free run of the pasture. They're not exactly on a 'dry-lot' but they do stay in the same pen with the same green stuff that they don't eat, lol.

I think I have 14 or 15 does on the breeding plan....and I already have 32 goats, lol. Does that really make any sense - nope. But, I love it anyway. I think this is the last year I'll be doing any Nubian x Nubian breeding. I love the floppy eared things, but they are the least hearty/healthy goats on the place. My crosses and even the pure pygmies are so much easier to maintain.

It's still hot here. We'll be hitting 90 today. Is fall EVER gonna settle in or will it be like it is most years....straight from summer to the less hot WET season? I used to call the less hot wet season "winter", but we don't get a lot of winter. But, we also have a warmer wet season...I still call that one summer cuz it's hotter than hades!

I don't think the sow will have any problems keeping her newborns warm if she farrows first part of November as planned. I really like raising hogs over the winter..it's just too hot in the summer for them to do anything but lay in the mud. They tend to stay healthier and eat better when it's cooler.

I think I'm gonna try my hand at pig castration depending on the number of male piglets. I would like to free range the ones I'm gonna keep, but I don't want to free range the sexes together once they get a little older. I like having the pigs out in the pasture, but since they reached sexual maturity I need to be able to have a little control. Can't have that control if a whole bunch of intact hogs are running together.

Dh had a hypoglycemic episode this morning. Blood sugar was down to 43..not fun for him. I got him back up to 100 before coming to work and I'm calling him about once an hour to check on him. He'd rather sleep than talk to me, but I've gotta know he's ok. Probably go home and check on him at lunch.

The new endocrinologist he's going to seems to have a handle on keeping his sugar lower - but - um - too low isn't good either. And, he even cut down on his long acting insulin last night. So, while the lows are miserable for him - I think we're headed in the right direction. Just got to get him stabilized on the new meds and I think he'll do a lot better.

Happy Thursday ya'll. Almost the weekend!