Hey Missy! I am a little behind here, just catching up and I have to say that is the cutest goat pic ever! What little characters!
On the subject of fat..... had a recent conversation with a friend about calories, she counts them. I told her that it is not calories in calories out....it is all about the TYPE of calories. She was adamant....so I finally had to throw down the ol' "Well look at me and my weight loss. I ate bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and crackers before. Now I don't. I don't count calories and I eat as much as I want whenever I want. It is ALL ABOUT THE TYPE OF CALORIE."
Hrumph
Whatever....she'll come around.
Congrats on cleaning your first bird, that had to be a little intimidating
Thank you!! I love that picture, too. I'd like to catch one of my hen Goldie riding on Dixie's back. She's the only one Dixie will let do that.
Ya know, the chicken wasn't the hard one. Rather gross, but not too bad. The bunnies on the other hand... The first one was haaaard. Sweet bunny! Now? Just hand me a broomstick
Bah, I'm starting to just ignore them. I've said it and said it. I'll keep saying it and maybe one day they'll listen. I've had folks tell me they don't eat a lot of carbs, then the next day they come over for dinner (they brought it) and it was potato salad, pasta salad, cheese bread, french fries, chicken and ribs. Nope, that's not a lot of carbs at all Granted, that may have been a special occasion, but still.
I just waggle my size 10 (and still shrinking!!! WOO!!) behind at them and go
I ended up that day cooking a bunch of squash & greens "so we would have enough food for everyone."
Oh, we had some excitement this morning. I looked out the window because something caught my eye. I thought maybe one of the chickens didn't make its way to the coop before lock-down. We have a few that like to hang out on the back steps and catch the bugs attracted to the light. But nooooo, it was a bunny.
What?! The heck are you doing out...
So I hauled butt out there and sure enough, cage #1 was empty and there were 4 rabbits happily hopping around eating grass.
Apparently, Lucky jumped INTO the rabbit hutch in an attempt to get some of their pellets. What is in that stuff, crack?
Anyways, he broke the brace on the bottom. DH thought the wire was still secure and we could wait until their turn in the tractor to fix their cage. Well... He was wrong.
But at least they were friendly enough to approach us. A few of them found a gap in the underpinning and were hiding under there for a few minutes before hopping back out to munch. *sigh*
Lucky is out of luck. Yesterday, DH fixed the wire on the bottom of the broken hutch. Not 15 minutes later, he's coming back outside to put the feeders back into it and as soon as the door was opened, Lucky jumped inside.
Not only that, he headbutted my girl Dixie on the hip bone the other day and she's got a nice little cut. Okay, so that's injuring my milk goat, TWO TIMES that he's broke a hutch. Umpteen dozen times he's almost broken my toe.. Or my ankle. Caught DH in the family jewels. He doesn't produce, can't breed, but just eats and annoys everyone on the place. He's dinner! Don't know what to tell my mother without lying. She got very sad about the chicken we butchered and she gave Lucky to us... :/
So I've look over butchering a goat this morning, seems pretty close to a deer. I still need to make jelly from the last few gallons of blackberries. Or maybe wine... Either way, I've got to get them out of the freezer.
I plan on canning a good part of the meat, the rest will go in the freezer. Maybe tanning his hide into buckskin.
On a lighter note, the rabbits seem to really enjoy hopping anywhere they wish. They weren't this happy in the tractor And I have to admit I love seeing them bouncing around the yard. They been sleeping under the house and have lots of places to hide from predators. We'll see how it goes. I doubt they will be able to breed, kits in the wild suffer horribly from fire ants.
We sold 8 of our RIR roos and will be ordering either 50 Freedom Rangers or 50 slow-growing cornish x's. Haven't decided yet.
We let Catsumoto (Hate D.O.G. The Ginger Ninja) back into the house on a probationary basis. We had this super wiley mouse that not only snuck past him in the yard, but has evaded all the traps we've set. It was so nice to wake up to a vibrating foot warmer this morning And he caught the mouse and hasn't peed in the closet instead of the litter box or jumped on the counter to steal people food all week. Good kitteh!
Okay, so on the Lucky situation, I sat down with mom & talked over the whole situation. We agreed to wait 1 month to find a good home for him. DH & I will be looking as well as mom. Unfortunately, most of the people I know who have goats (and I'm surprised at just HOW many there are) anyways, they all seem to keep them for real usefullness, milk, meat, breeding and sometimes for brush eating. If we could find someone to take him on for brush control, it's be great. I just can't handle him anymore :/
The guys who bought all my RIR roos (darnit!) want another 20 chickens! maybe I better up that order to 75 or 100... Waiting until Friday (payday!) so we don't knock out most of our checking account buffer.
I stopped on the way home yesterday and talked to a couple I met several months ago. They are mini-farmers, been doing it for almost 4 years now and they have the most beautiful garden! They have a buck, 3 does and 4 kids. The buck throws gorgeous kids, very flashy. He's 3/4 boer, 1/4 alpine. I offered to do their milking & feeding next time they go on their camping trip in exchange for a night's stay for Dixie and later, Umbra. They dried their goats off last year in preparation for the trip and got completely rained out. Yeah, that was when it rained for three weeks straight... No really.
So I'm watching Dixie for signs of heat, I think she may have had a cycle late last month. She's normally very stately & graceful, walking with her head up, stepping up on the platform like the herd queen she is. About 3 weeks ago, she was acting like a kid, galloping around, jumping up on things, leaping sprawling wethers in a single bound, pawing, licking me waaaay more than normal. She gives me "kisses" if I make the kiss noise & Goat slobber, yum! :rolleyes
Still no eggs!!! Or if there are, they are hiding them so well that 4 people quartering the pasture can't find them. Or possibly hopping out of the fence? We never see them out of the fence... Heat? Shrinking daylight hours? I want some eggs!!!
Awesome deal on the breeding! I would leap for joy if I found that kind of deal....in reverse. Someone to milk for me in exchange for breeding. Woohoo!!!
I have to laugh because of savingdogs' hot thread on breeding her does and all the replies she got....
I was so excited when I got home, I was babbling to DH the whole conversation before I walked in the door. They didn't even want me to pay or trade anything!!! But I insisted, I mean, fair is fair right? Still an awesome deal!
Well, we found Lucky a home. He has the run of 10 or more acres, everything from pasture to grown up creek beds. The gentleman who got him owned goats long ago and wanted more now that he was retired. He's got feelers out for more "brush goats" so Lucky will shortly have more company. Right now, he has a large golden retriever and a short hair cat to play with.
Harvested another roo yesterday. He's chilling in the fridge waiting to be put in the soup pot. I'm loving this cooler weather, I missed soup.
Sold another 2 chickens to the guys in town. They asked about rabbit too. DH needs to stop telling folks we'll sell our potential food
Let the 4 "teenage" bunnies out to free range with the others. They are slowly warming up to us. Bred that mama, as they are almost 12 weeks old.
Made homemade taco salad with ground deer meat canned last year, dried sweet corn, tomato leather (for the sauce) and homegrown lettuces from a neighbor. The only thing bought was the cheese and the spices. It was so freaking good, I brought some for lunch today
That's about all for now. My weekend was semi-busy, but rather boring. I cleaned house most of the weekend, yuck
ETA: No, that's not all! I don't know how I forgot, but I FINALLY got eggs! Woohoo!
I fried them sunny side up, with butter, mushroom & onion. They were soooooo good
We were given a potbellied pig this weekend.
He's about 5 months old and so far, he's on parole as a corn powered tiller. He was given to my beek friend who then gave him to me. He has no room or desire for a pig and the guy who owned him before got tired of having him in the house. It belonged to his daughter, was potty trained and follows people around like a puppy. He also rubs on your legs like a cat. I'm pretty sure the real reason for getting rid of him was his "maturity". He's not been cut and is definately displaying his malehood.
If I can get a female, I might try to breed some, but that's still up in the air.
He was a bit of a surprise, so we didn't have anything put together for him. We had to slap together a pen for him. We kept him in the backyard with the goats the first night, then DH finds him trying to nurse my goat!!!
But we had enough wire & t-posts to throw together a temporary pen, so he's in the front yard tilling up a spot for next spring's garden.
Our chicks came in last week from Meyer's. I am VERY pleased so far. Have not lost any and they sent 3 extras so we have 53 baby roosters... They'll be heading outside in a couple of weeks. I think I'm going to need a bigger box...
Here's our nuggets