NH Homesteader's journal

[frustratedearthmother]

Famous last words....

What was he supposed to be fixing on it? Did it seize up totally?

 

[NH Homesteader]

Don't know what he was fixing, DH tries to explain it to me but I don't get it, lol. And I believe it is all done, but we'll find out for sure today.

DH is in a lovely mood today. Good thing I don't care about valentine's day!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I can imagine that he'd be in a mood.... this stuff is stressful! Eh...on Valentines day. My DH is the sentimental one and I tell him to forget about it, lol!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Neither of us are into it. It's a card company holiday!

 

[Mini Horses]

Well, I'm with Bay on this....and I DO HAVE some fields with the one FEM suggests &both types are the Red Brand. IF YOU PUT ELECTRIC inside, it makes the field fence last much longer. The minis loved the rub their winter haired butts on it! It WILL STRETCH...the goats like to just lean into it from shoulder to butt and walk along to scratch of winter hair. Then, the spaces become distorted. Both are good fence but, without the electric you have to watch your animals habits. With goats, if they decide to use it as a ladder to reach tree limbs, vines, etc., it will push down. With either, installation is critical to keep tight and not allow for the pull down, where it kinda folds up at the bottom. I have some wood & some T-posts interspersed to help keep the fence UP....the hooks on T-posts CAN pull down over time. Yep, some of it is 15-20 years old now!

 

[NH Homesteader]

I'm trying to decide what to do about goats. There are no mini bucks around here. Even if I get another mini buck I'll have a genetic bottleneck in one generation. I can't afford to keep enough bucks, or goats in general, for a "breeding program". There is no market for registered minis around here, and alpines aren't very meaty.

So... Do I spend the money to get another mini buck here, or do I go with my original plan and keep cliff for minis and get a pygmy for meat offspring? Hmm....

Oh and yes, the plan is to put electric inside the field fence to keep the goats off it!

 

[Mini Horses]

LOL -- a real problem shopping for a buck! Anyone from who you can rent one for a month?

My experience with Pygmy -- they are small in size but they smelled 20X worse than ANY 300# Boer I had during rut!!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Lol I have friends who have one and he smells about average. Their Nigerian is the worst smelling thing though! No, can't rent one. And Clifford needs a friend so I want a second buck anyway.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

My pygmies don't smell any worse to me than my other bucks. I wonder if maybe it's because I hardly notice rut smell anymore anyway.

I say get another buck! It makes sense...and I never minded line-breeding. I've done it for years with nary a problem. You could definitely do it for several generations and if you feel the need - trade bucks then.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I am definitely getting another buck... Just a question of what breed and the direction I'm taking.