Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[Mini Horses]

Mid to late teens is about a limit, especially when you consider the kids & milk they produce. No matter the great care, it takes a toll. Maybe some vinegar water & dried cranberries would help if it is UTI issue.....just a thought.

Glad you are enjoying your milker. I plan to order mine later this week. We have sunshine & warm, bordering hot as upper 80's next couple days, so I'm taking advantage and working all I can outside. Only 1/2 day of "paying" work this week. Nice!

How's your mom & dad? Nothing mentioned lately, hope all is smooth going for awhile.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

@Mini Horses
Mom and dad are doing pretty well right now. Dad's new hearing aids have helped them a lot. Neither of them feel so isolated now that they can actually hold a conversation. Thanks for asking.

I really think you'll enjoy the milker. Just as a warning, mine took a couple weeks to get here. They build them after the order comes in.

I "should" try to sell some babies this weekend and free up some does to milk. I hate this part of breeding - making the decision who stays and who goes is so HARD! I feel like I'm betraying the ones that are sent away... I'm such a softie.

Some good news, even if it is only temporary....the old lady was up this evening and at the feeder... sheesh... she just likes to keep me guessing I guess. I'll watch her for another day or so and hope she continues to get better...but it's still inevitable.... Another one of those decisions I hate to make.

 

[Mini Horses]

Good, on parents. Hearing DOES make a difference & yes, they can now communicate with each other. Woohoo.

Old lady -- maybe something for inflammation would help. Like taking Aleve for me, it just smooths out the aches. Then moving is better and that moving helps offset more aches. Just a thought.

I'm ready to wean every kid, then disperse most. My hard decision comes with butchering. The twins I felt best due to size and build (full sized Nubians) are also the friendliest --- except for cuddly Jethro, who will be here for long term. He's the 5th gen mini-nub who is small, way smaller than other two of the trips, although they are not near size of the twins above.

Shame that kids are necessity for milking.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Stayed home today to take delivery of my new freezer. Yippee - 5 day weekend. Gotta love that! Spent alllll day outside because MIRACLE - we got zero rain here. It's flooding north of us and many folks are dealing with dangerous issues, but for once we didn't catch it. Tomorrow is another day though. Seventy percent chance of more thunderstorms.

I'm changing things again, lol. The only constant on my place is change. I'm taking down some tall panels around the pig pen because it is double fenced with hog panels. I'm leaving the hog panels for... the hogs, lol. I'll use the taller panels to divide an area to wean some babies. The wish is that I sell them before I need the pen, but I'm going to build it anyway. I can always use an extra pen.

I'm going to wait until Saturday in case we get some of the big rains tomorrow. Then....then....wait for it.... I'll start milking three does with my brand new shiny milking machine! Woo hoo! And of course, my daughter wants us to come visit two weeks after that. We'll go, but we'll only be able to stay one night. I can milk the morning that we leave and the milk the next evening when we get home. It's not an ideal situation, but it's doable and it shouldn't affect production too much.

I'll use the other panels to fashion a funnel of sorts so the pigs can get out of their pen and roam the pasture - and the other panels will make another fence so the pigs can't get up to the front barn with the goats. When I do that I'll have to come up with a solution so that the goats can still go out and the pigs can't come in. I'm going to put a ramp over the fence that I'm hoping the pigs will NOT go over. I won't make the ramp go all the way to the ground... I'll start it about a foot high or so... goats can use it, but pigs/horses should stay on their side. Stay tuned... and we'll see if it works!

 

[Denim Deb]

Are you sure you can handle not having any rain?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It'll be hard....

But, gotta get through tomorrow!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Went out this morning and Spot, one of the FF Nubians had a really tight bag. Now, she has a baby that should be keeping that bag suckled down so I immediately started worrying that he might be sick. But nope, he's healthy, happy and running around playing like normal. Not sure why she wasn't letting him nurse, but it gave me a good opportunity to put her on the milk stand for a lesson.

She was wonderful - after I tied her legs down, lol! But really, only had to do that for a minute and she settled right down. I got about a pint out of her and then let her down. Wanted to end it on a good note.

Got a few goats wormed. Felix, my ND, that was wormed about a month ago just didn't respond to the wormer so he got re-wormed with a different class of drug. And, just for good measure he got some injected iron and B complex.

If the weather holds I'll start the weaning process with three of the oldest doelings tomorrow morning!

Worked some on the new fencing project. I need a little help moving some of the panels into a tricky spot. I can drag them flat anywhere they need to go, but when I have to stand them up and go through two gates at one time necessitating a couple of bends - I NEEDS HELP!

We had a little shower today but thankfully, none of the bad stuff!

 

[Denim Deb]

I know the feeling of needing help like that! I used to think that when I got my own place, I'd fence it all in w/cattle panels. I've changed my mind.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Woo hoo! More rain overnight. I went all day yesterday thinking we were going to miss it and it hit at 8pm....rained for hours. We are at almost 12 inches for the month. Our average annual rainfall is roughly 48 inches. But the last couple of years - NOT! Dreading getting out there today... and just for the record.. I could go the rest of my life and NEVER want to see a pair of rubber boots again.....

 

[CJ1]

I'd send you some of our rain if I could. Weather said it wasn't supposed to rain. So I rode to work instead of driving my truck. Half way here it started pouring on me.

They say that the average annual rainfall here is only 38 inches. But I'm pretty sure we get more. Gonna have to start keeping track.