Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[Denim Deb]

Keep us posted.

 

[creativetwinszoo]

Same as denim! Glad to hear he's moving at least a little bit

 

[frustratedearthmother]

OMG - when I say this goat had a $hi?$torm this morning - he had a $hi?$torm!! It was all over his crate, it was all over the towel that I stood him when I got him out of his crate, it was all over him and it was all over me! I've never seen so much stinky stuff come out of one little body in my whole life! Sooo, on that front he is better. But, do I think he's 100% yet - not really. He still stands kinda hunkered up and he still strains to pass any stool - but he is passing some more and it's the milk poop...but it's all sticky too.

But, on a bright note - he nursing! Mom's bag is so stressed that I had to milk her this evening just so the little guys could actually grasp a teat. As soon as I got her udder softened up they both started nursing . Problem - they both want the same side....grrrrr! That will create a problem for me. If they both insist on the same side I'll be forced to milk the other or let it dry up - and that is NOT gonna happen. I'll tape up the side they're both nursing on if I have to and they'll be forced to use the other side too. Stooopid boys....

Have a busy day planned tomorrow. I've got three pomegranate trees to get planted in the morning. I've got to get K'ili wormed and get after her feet too - they're looking kinda rough. After that I need to move the 4 smaller bucks to a new pen to start working on converting their existing pen to garden area. I picked up some top soil and manure to start filling up the big tubs that I'm gonna plant in too. I'm wondering how many bags it'll take to fill all 15 of these tubs! Hope this doesn't get too costly...

There's lots more on my 'to do' list but I'm too tired to even remember right now. I'm sleepy.....

 

[Myhouseisazoo2]

Yaaay he finally poo'd! Not so yay that it was everywhere but yay! What brand of top soil do you use for your gardening (there's a ton of different ones where I'm at and I'm trying to figure out what brands best)

 

[creativetwinszoo]

Daaang! Well at least he's going a bit so that's good! Not so good it was everywhere :I
Sounds like the start of planting season!!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

@Myhouseisazoo2 I'm using Wal-Mart's cheapest dirt, lol. It's Earthgro brand. I figure I can always amend the soil and/or use some manure tea if needed. At least the cow manure/humus mixture is organic.

Got lots going on today. I've already moved the small-ish bucks into their new area, wormed K'ili, DH has holes drilled in all the planting tubs, one is filled with dirt, and have some seeds started. Still have more to do, but not stressing over any of it. It'll all happen in good time!

Mostly just enjoying this beeee-you-teee-full day!

 

[Denim Deb]

If only you were closer I could get you all the manure you need. And, since it's pretty much composted, you wouldn't need the dirt.

Glad the little guy seems to be doing better. Hope he continues to improve.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks, Deb! It's a shame I can't use the manure from my own critters...but "they" say that after feeding the hay treated with herbicides it actually shows up in the manure too.... geeze. I will NOT make that mistake next year. It's possible that I'm being overly cautious, and I plan to actually do some experiments with the hay as mulch and with the manure - but well away from my main garden. I just can't take the chance of wasting all my time and effort again this year.

In today's news - I got the rest of my seeds started and planted my three pomegranate trees. Planting those trees took the last ounce of my energy. I had to pretty much give it up after that, lol. But after a nice dinner I'm feeling revived again! Good thing too since I've got a whole bunch of stuff on my plate for tomorrow too.

Thinking about a quick soak in the hot tub and an early bed time.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

One of my bucks has been limping since the weekend - but the stinker wouldn't let me catch him to check it out. I really thought that he and his pen mates had just played too rough and he had nothing more than a sore leg - BUT - I chased him down tonight and FINALLY managed to catch him. Poor guy! He had a wire stuck in the bottom of his hoof. I pulled it out and black gunk came oozing out of the hole.....ewwwwwww! That put a big kink in my evening plans... I got a bucket of hot epsom salt water and spent a futile half-hour trying to get him to soak his hoof. Grrrrrr! He didn't like me much after that and it got worse cuz I ended up giving him tetanus anti-toxin, tetanus toxoid and penicillin injections before I turned him loose. I would like to have bandaged it up to keep it clean, but I think it's more important that it drain if it will.

K'ili and her bucklings are doing ok. I wormed her a couple days ago and now she's got diarrhea now. Her appetite is still enormous, so she must not feel too bad, lol. I just fed hay tonight and she was crying "foul" cuz she wanted her grain... too bad!

The girls are working overtime now...I got 36 eggs in two days and I didn't even go into one pen to look...I usually get 5 or 6 out of that area. We had mushroom quiche tonight and didn't even make a dent in the eggs. My customers at work will be pretty happy to hear that the girls are off strike.

Went back to WallyWorld Sunday and picked up 20 more bags of soil and manure along with some gravel to go in the bottom of the containers. I'll finally get some buckets ready to plant by this weekend. I'm so excited! Doesn't take much, huh?

This is the time of year when things really start getting hectic. Goats are kidding, garden is tryin' to get going, and all manner of ideas are popping around in my head. I'm really good at ideas - it's implementing them that's hard....

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Busy, busy day here! Started this morning by re-re-arranging all the bucks who had re-arranged themselves....grrrr! Had to re-hang the divider between their pens cuz they had re-arranged it too, lol. Silly boys! All in all that musta took me at least an hour.

Then I got a pen set up to try and breed some meat birds. I've got a roo who had a Cornish cross mama and Faverolle daddy and he's HUGE with a big ol' meaty breast. I still have one actual Cornish cross hen left that I've put him with and another meaty cross hen from the same hatch as he is from. (did any of that make sense?) That gives me a nice trio that I'm hoping will produce some meaty babies. I don't expect them to grow out like a frankenbird - but I'd be happy to just get some nice freezer meat out of 'em.

Worked for a while in one of the raised beds. I got some Romaine lettuce transplanted in there, cleaned out few weeds and put up a panel fence around it to keep the chickens out of it. Also transplanted a little tangerine tree from a wee little pot into a great big one. It was pretty root bound, so it was time.

I got to play on the tractor just a little bit and put the last round bale in a pen for the horses. We've had nice spring like weather the last week or so and I expect the spring grasses will start shooting up as soon as we get past the predicted cold spell coming in a couple days. I want to limit their time on the new grass and see if we can keep their feet from falling apart this spring. Silly little grass foundering goofballs. And, bonus, they'll have to remember how much they love me or they won't be getting even a tiny handful of grain. They turn into such little diva's all winter when they don't get handled much.

The little buckling that had such a rough start is finally (!) nursing well and bouncing around like a baby buckling should. I'll have to get them disbudded this weekend and then, of course, they'll hate me. I truly, truly hate disbudding, but it is a necessary evil.

Time to get back out there while I've still got some daylight.

Happy Valentine's Day, ya'll!