Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[NH Homesteader]

Hope your husband continues to feel better. That's scary.

I was going to ask how many goats you have, lol. 32? Yikes! Do you have pictures of your kinders? They sound very interesting! I'm not a huge nubian fan but I like dual purpose goats and I love pygmies!

I'm having a hard time right now because I purchased a buckling with papers and he has been the most difficult goat I've owned. His hooves grow so fast and I've been constantly deworming and supplementing and he is just not a tough goat. It's been a harsh awakening that well bred dairy goats are often not the easiest keepers. So, I'm getting away from the purebred nonsense and I'm getting a pygmy buck from a friend in the spring and I'll breed my minis to him, and likely try out some goat meat from the offspring. Time will tell what I do with my current buckling.

As far as hogs, my husband has helped his friend do it a few times. It's not that bad. Except all the squealing!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Just so happens that I have a pic. First is a Kinder

doe and her March kid of this year, the second is my Kinder buck.

I love this guy! Hoping to get some nice kids from him!

 

[NH Homesteader]

I LOVE THEM! My poor husband. I had just told him I only want ONE more goat. Well that plan is shot. I must have one of these. One... Right...

How's their milk production?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Great milkers! My best milking Kinder, at peak last year, was giving 3+ quarts a day...really just about a cup shy of a gallon, milking twice a day. Not the most beautiful udder, but not terrible either.

Did a pygmy to pygmy breeding today. I really want some more pygmy babies, lol. Who am I kidding - I just want babies!

 

[baymule]

Your kinder goats are pretty, I love their spots.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks, Bay. I love them too...pygmy colors are basically boring, lol. Putting the Nubian in the mix opens the door for all manner of wild/crazy colors!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

This dang foot! Grrrrrr - I have managed to roll this foot twice AGAIN this week. Good thing I've got another doc appt. Monday. Last night when I rolled it I heard a loud pop and felt a tug that just wasn't good. Instant swelling...increased pain. This is craziness! I think there's an inherent weakness for whatever reason that is preventing the foot from being stable right now. Guess there's an MRI in my future. Grrrr!

However - I still managed to get a few things done...emphasis on "few". Woke up this morning intending to have a leisurely cup of coffee before heading outside. Looked out the window and my leisure time was DONE. All. The. Stinking. Bucks. Were. Loose. Sigh.... Couple weeks ago I inspected the fences around the buck pens. I added a couple staples to a couple spots, but all in all everything looked good. Except for the one spot I didn't even look at. I have a gate in the back of their pen that I never use so I kind of, sort of, forgot to check the latch. Bucks didn't forget it. It was the one weak spot and they popped the latch right offa that gate and were running rampant. I'll be breaking the lutalyse out in just under two weeks. I saw one of the older pygmy does get bred by the kinder buck. That's NOT gonna happen. I feel horrible... I sat down last week and come up with a breeding plan for all the does that I intend to breed this year and in just a couple of minutes the rinkin', stinkin' bucks ruined all my plans.

Bucks for sale - cheap!

So, I re-arranged the pigs and the bucks. The bucks are now in a corner pen, surrounded by empty pens on 3 sides of them (and my neighbors on the other side), so that they can't even get with in 30'ish feet of the does. To get out now they'd have to go through two layer of pens. Stoopid goats.

We finally got the rest of the square bales unloaded that we picked up on Monday. I even got some help from DH this afternoon. A couple days ago I had unloaded about a third of it, but doing that caused one of the times that I rolled my foot again, so I had just pulled the tarp back up and left it until today. I still plan on getting at least 3 more round bales...probably even a few more. I'm trying to figure out a way to get one in the buck pen when there are no gates big enough to get the tractor through. Might have to take down one of those stock panels that I just added extra staples to, lol.

 

[baymule]

Sorry about your foot, I hate getting hurt and not being able to do what I want to do. Even worse when I re-hurt it doing what I shouldn't be doing.

Is your tractor big enough to raise the round bale and dump over the fence?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Is your tractor big enough to raise the round bale and dump over the fence?

I wish! It only picks em up about 3 foot or so. But, where I have the bucks now I'd have to get through two pens anyway. I think what I'm gonna do is just fix up a feeder that'll hold a couple square bales. At least that'll beat bringing a flake or two at a time to them.

When I built these pens I didn't have a tractor, lol. Now - all fencing is built with gates wide enough to get the tractor through.

@baymule - are ya'll getting this heat?? It's crazy - we'll be in the 90's again today.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Oh bucks...

It's supposed to get really warm here this week, heat wave must have hit you first.