Burning and Raking the Field



Beginning to burn.

It's that time of year and we took advantage of a clear warm couple of days to get out and prepare the field.  J and the boys took the new spring harrow out and dragged the entire hay field.  Z did a lot of the driving with J on the back to coach him.  M and K following behind them in the golf cart picking up any trash that was kicked up with the harrow.
After dragging the entire field, J took the propane burner - with kids following eagerly behind - and proceeded to burn the tops of the field.  He also burned a lot of the brush in the section that hasn't been cleared.  He had to cut a second fire line because the fire jumped it in the wind.  It was fun to watch.  The kids had a wonderful time with their own little fire in the rocks.  And the dogs went wild chasing all of the voles that were forced across the field in the fire.

The field looks like it's waking up after the rake has gone through it.  And then the burning looks like it's dead.  Amazingly, these two things in conjunction will make the hay grow better than if we just left it alone.  It was nice to see the farm working a bit.

J decided to plow the side of the field as well - a part that hadn't previously been planted.  His dad was excited to see it happen and is thinking about planting a wheat that you bale early.  He says it makes a great cow hay.  We'll see.

Disbudding Zeus

There are a lot of things that people in the city don't want to know about farm life.  I mean, I watched Food, Inc. and was just as appalled as everyone at the conditions that the animals were forced to live in.  That's not what I'm talking about.  Our animals live as happily as we can accomodate.  But reality dictates that some things that might not be necessary in the wild, are done on the farm.  Disbudding is one of those things.

Many goat owners do not disbud (or de-horn) their goats.  Many do.  I am one that believes my herd is safer to themselves and to others if they do not have horns.  Goats like to head butt for dominance - sometimes they even do this to children - and horns make them more likely to cause significant damage.  Goats also have a tendency to put their heads through the fence when they see something on the other side that they like.  Horns tend to get stuck.  This isn't safe for the goats.

So, we disbud any goats that will be living with us into adulthood.  I should mention that babies born for the specific purpose of meat don't need to be disbudded because they will be sold or butchered before their horns become an issue.  My thought is, why put them through the pain of disbudding if it's not necessary to keep them and others safe?

With Zeus, I chose to have the vet come out to do the disbudding.  It had been quite a long time since I participated in this activity and I wanted someone who knew what they were doing to walk me through it again.  I was also concerned that Zeus' horns had gotten large enough that they might be a challenge.  He was already a month old (I like to disbud at one to two weeks old).

The vet gave Zeus a sedative and some local anesthetic around the horn buds.  He clipped the fur back so that we could really see the horn buds.  Then, with a very hot circular iron (called a calf dehorner), he began to burn a circle around the horn bud itself.  The goal is to burn the bed where the horn grows (kindof like a nail bed on a finger).  This prevents the horn from growing.  He burned it until a copper color appears in the ring.  That is the signal that we have gotten far enough into the bed.  Then he cauterized the center, peel it off, and we were done.  He gave Zeus an anti-inflamatory and an anti-sedative.  Zeus was up and walking around within minutes.

The hard thing about this is that normally, I would not have paid the vet to come do this.  I would have had J hold the kid down and I would have burned the horn bed out without a sedative.  This is how most goat owners do it.  It's terribly painful for the baby...they scream until they eventually go into a sort of shock and get quiet.  It's just too expensive to pay a vet to do this, and there aren't any safe pain meds you can give a goat for this type of procedure.

So Zeus will not have horns.  His are gone.  Hopefully for good.  Occasionally you will get a small part of a horn that grows, called a scur, and you have to re-burn the bed.  We're hoping that the vet did a great job and Zeus will have no other burning experiences.

Milking Great!

I misunderstood when to start milking Lilo.  I thought I was supposed to wait a couple of weeks but that was wrong.  I need to millk her twice a day from now on so that her milk supply will stay large.  I let the babies drink in the evening, then milk her dry.  I pull the babies off for the night.  Then in the morning, I milk her dry again and return the babies to her.  I may leave the babies with her at night for the first week or so, just to build up their strength.  Then they can go into the small pen in the shed with Zeus.

Stitch nursing from Lilo.

I had to run to the feed store this morning and get a stainless steel pail for milking.  I already had the filters.  While I was out, I went to Freddy's and picked up some glass jars with clamp-sealing lids for the milk.  Lilo did a pretty nice job standing for me in the stanchion.  I milked out 3 quarts!  It looked pretty creamy (not the yellow you would see if it were colostrum) so I tasted it.  Mmmmm...it's so rich it coats your finger with cream.  And it is sweet.  I think we can start drinking it now.

I was a bit concerned that the babies might not be nursing successfully, but when we went out to feed the bottle babies, I happened to catch the babies on mommy.  So glad to see that.  Now I don't need to worry about them.

New Kids on the Block




Lilo's buckling "Max" and doeling "Stitch."

 

Well, Lilo finally had her babies.  I was sure it would happen last night, so I was up every couple of hours checking on her.  I finally gave up about 6am and just got up.  She was having contractions but I didn't see anything that looked like an impending delivery (i.e. no discharge, no squatting).  So about nine I decided I could take a couple of minutes and run to the store for donuts.  I asked J to keep an eye on her.  20 minutes later I return.  She has already had the first kid (it's almost dry) and the second one is slipping out as I walk up.  Darn it.

I yelled for someone to help, but apparently nobody heard me.  Finally, Butch heard me and yelled at the guys in the house.  The kids and J came out to help then.  I didn't want to leave Lilo until I was sure someone was there.

Both babies are doing fine.  The first was a boy and the second was a girl.  I wasn't sure if there might be a third - Lilo was still contracting a lot - but it was just the afterbirth.  I dried the babies off, dipped their umbilical cords in iodine, and gave them back to mommy.  She kept pawing the ground - knocking the kids around while she did it.  I'm not sure that she was up to, but she seemed to want to move them.  Eventually she stopped.  We worked on getting the kids to suckle...something that they would eventually do on their own, but I wanted to make sure she got them to do within the first hour.  I milked her a little to get the colostrum plugs to open up.  Once the milk was flowing it was easier to get the babies on her, although they had a hard time staying on for more than a few seconds.

We plan to keep the doeling for another breeder, and sell the buckling.  The doeling's name was decided before she arrived - Stitch.  We still don't have a name for the boy.  I'm hoping we can find someone who would like to keep him as a pet, but in the end, he's a butcher baby so it's better to stay unattached.

J put up a few extra boards around the shelter to help with wind protection.  Tumbleweed helped by stealing screws out of the bucket and running away.  She needed attention too.  I gave Lilo some warm molasses water for a treat.  The babies snuggled down and I went inside to clean up a bit.  Lilo delivered (and ate) the afterbirth.  It was gross but I saw no reason to take it away from her as it's a natural protein source for her.

I'm not sure if we need to bring the babies inside or not tonight.  It's pretty chilly outside, but I want Lilo to bond with her babies.  We'll check on them in a little bit, for now, I'm letting them all take a nap.  Maybe I will too.

Sprouts

Baby cucumber sprout "Straight Eight" variety

The first of many sprouts began today. It is a cucumber. It never ceases to amaze me that I can put a little thing into some soil, water it, and it will grow. A miracle, I guess. Maybe that's what makes me a gardener.

I looked for some poetic and philisophic quote to add here about watching a garden grow. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of them. And so many speak to the joy of watching a seed grow into a plant. But the following quote seemed to me to be more appropriate to our circumstances. While I don't intend to belittle the beauty of gardening or farming...there is a certain reality that lies beneath what we do. Here it is, penned by one of my favorite sci-fi authors.

"Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden." - Orson Scott Card

New Broiler Chicks

Broiler chicks lined up at the feed dish.

Well, I gave in to some broiler chicks today at the feed store. It's not really because they are cute (although they are). Just because they won't be around the farm for long doesn't make them a guilt free purchase. I just need to push myself to accept this next reality of farmlife...namely, the killing of a chicken.

I have done it a couple of times - wrung a chicken's neck. But I was forced into it as a mercy killing after the chickens were mortally wounded by a short-legged, long-eared mutt named Blue (aka father-in-law's dog). It wasn't hard to do under those circumstances. This will be different.

Sleeping at the food dish...pathetic.

Broiler chicks are really a Cornish Cross chicken that is bred for its ability to grow quickly and grow large. I'm not sure that I'm ok with the whole breed, but we're starting here. I have learned that feeding them 24 hours a day like you do regular chicks will likely bring on heart attacks (they get so fat so fast they cannot handle it) and can make it harder for them to support themselves on thier legs toward the end of their short eight-week long life. So we will take their food away at night and force them to grow a little bit slower.

When the time comes, I will have a dozen chickens to dispatch. I am hoping that a friend will take pity on me and hold my hand through it. I have a few friends who have done it before. My goal is to get to a point where this is an ok part of farm like for me - like taking Kevin to the butcher - and we can add chicken to our list of products. I also know that there will come a time when my older laying hens need to find a heavenly roost and rather than waste them, I would like to be comfortable enough with the process to dispatch them correctly and with as little pain as possible. Only time will tell...and if I don't test my limits, really, who will?

Adios Kevin Bacon

(Pictured: Kevin Bacon in the trailer on the way to town)

We loaded one of our pig pies, Kevin Bacon, into the trailer today for his last long ride. As the Storey guide calls it, "He's ready to go to town." When we weight taped him at the butcher, he measured between 225 and 250 pounds.

Kevin was one of the original three piglets that we bought back in November 2010. His two siblings died within a couple of days of coming home. Ironically, he was the runt and did the best. Part of me wonders if it was the change to rich feed and Kevin didn't get as much because he was forced out by the bigger two...that would be poetic. Either way, he had his last meal this morning.

Butcher Boys in Prineville was our choice for butchers. There are several places we could have called, but Butcher Boys is USDA approved which means we can legally sell meat that is processed there. They are a small company. In fact, driving up to the building, you might think you were visiting a small farm...a very small farm. There isn't much pomp and circumstance going on. They do have a nice view from the top of a hill. But otherwise, it is understated. And that is fine with me.

One of the owners helped us to unload Kevin and push him toward a holding cell for the night. We talked with the owner (who is also one of the butchers) about learning as much as we can from this first butchering. He said that he would be happy to share what he sees with us.

Kevin will be held overnight, given water, and then killed and butchered tomorrow. The gal in the front will call us tomorrow afternoon to talk about specific cuts. The meat will then be ready for pick-up within the week. Amazing.

Kevin Bacon will be remembered for his wonderful squeals when you rubbed his back. He would always sway from side to side as you scratched him. Then he would take off running and barking in excitement. He was not much for the belly rub, but was known to roll over ocassionally. He was always interested in checking out the goat pen for better digs. He had no trouble going through the gate once it was open. Kevin was a good pig. He will be missed...and enjoyed for meals to come. Thank you Kev.

UPDATE: We got the "hanging weight" back from the butcher. Kevin weighed in at 203 pounds of useable meat! We must be doing something right, because generally you ancitipate about 70% of the live weight for the hanging weight. Even at 250 pounds, that would only be 175 pounds of meat. Good job, Kevin!

Let the Planting Begin

This afternoon, Emmy (a friend's daughter) and I began planting our veggie starts for the season. We planted a total of 432 pots. There were a few extra seeds when we were finished, but honestly, I was pretty impressed with my ability to estimate how many seeds in the packets.

We planted:
1. Early Girl Hybrid Tomatoes
2. Beefmaster Hybrid Tomatoes
3. Jelly Bean Hybrid Tomatoes (grape)
4. Roma VF Tomatoes
5. Burpee Hybrid II Cucumbers
6. Organic Straight Eight Cucumbers
7. Organic Delicata Winter Squash
8. Sugar Baby Watermelon
9. Jack Of All Trades Pumpkin
10. Anaheim Chili Peppers
11. California Wonder 300 TMR Peppers (bell)
12. Organic Black Beauty Zucchini Squash
13. Yellow Summer Crookneck Squash

We'll see how it goes. J started tilling the field this afternoon too. I walked past and couldn't help but sing "I take the tractor another round, pull the plow across the ground...send up another prayer. I never complain, I never ask why, please don't let my dreams run dry..." Sounds like a new theme song for Rogers Roost Ranch.

We Live in a Barn

My hubby made a comment last night about how he thinks we may have more livestock in the house than outside. I reminded him that we do still have more outside than in, but would take his point under consideration.

We built a nice little pen for the goat kids in the shed out of pallets. It is one pallet deep and two and a half pallets wide. We used a smaller pallet as a gate. I found some hinges from the hinge can in the cupboard (taken off old cupboards). J was at school working on a project with K so I had to screw the hinges in by hand, but that was pretty easy. The chickens helped to spread half a bale of straw around on the floor of the pen and once J returned with a hook latch...we were ready to go.

The babies weren't too sure about it at first, but soon found that they could walk right through the openings in the pallets. We quickly fixed that with an extra board or two. They enjoyed having more room to romp. We brought them in at night, but plan on having them outside after tomorrow. We'll hook up a heat lamp in the corner so they have extra warmth. It'll be nice to have them out of the house. As much as I enjoy them, they are harder to ignore when they see you walk past all the time.

Oh, Zeus is feeling much better...not sleeping half as much as he was before. Good to see him acting more like a kid.

Now we just need to get the dozen chicks into an outdoor brooder.

Zeus, Herdsire in training

(Pictured: Zeus, ten days old)

Today we volunteered to babysit three bottle baby goats for a friend and his wife. They both have to work full time and the babies need feedings three times a day (really four). So J and I went over and picked up the cuties...a doeling and two bucklings.

Our friend has a herd of about 200 boer goats. He raises them almost exclusively to sell for meat...which raises a few concerns for us because he doesn't test his goats for CAE or CL. But in talking with him about the health history of his goats, looking at them ourselves, and really talking about how the diseases are transmitted, we decided we could take the chance. He uses whole milk from Costco to bottle feed...a little different but cost effective for meat babies.

We brought the three babies into the house at first, putting them in a baby playpen for a few days. The youngest was only 2 days old and we felt like it was too cold for them outside. One of the bucklings really caught my eye. He had a nice blocky head and really stout legs. He was pretty sleepy most of the time, but seemed to have a healthy appetite.

After a couple of days, we decided to buy the bigger buckling for our herdsire. We had the vet come out to disbud him...mainly because we don't have the tools and wanted to make sure it was done correctly this time. Well, the buckling had pneumonia. As did the other buckling. So, they both got shots of LA-200 and we decided to wait on the disbudding. They should be doing better in a few days and we will have the vet out again next week to help with the disbudding.

Rainy, Windy Day and Labor?

Today was one of those days when you think of all the projects you want to do outside and then stay inside instead. It seems like when the weather is great, I cannot decide what to work on. But when I go to bed planning to plant grass seed or re-paint the chicken coop, the next day has 50 mph gusts of wind and rain mixed with snow falling sideways.

I was watching Lilo for a bit this afternoon and she seems restless. It's hard to tell if she is unhappy about the weather, about Tumbleweed bugging her incessantly to play, or is going into labor. She kept getting up and scratching the dirt, then laying down again. Every time Tumbles would come over, she'd get her back hair up and head butt her away. I don't see anything that looks like a true contraction, but we'll see. I've started to sleep with the window cracked open so that I can hear her if she needs me.

I've tried to feel for her ligaments, but cannot seem to feel them anymore. I also feel like her spine at the base of her tail is "open." I can almost put my thumb and forefinger around her tail bone. That was something that one guy mentioned as a sign of impending labor. Only God knows...but I hope it goes well. I have all of our supplies ready, but honestly, I'd like to simply spectate and not have to help her much at all.

I've also be trying to decide if we should wake the boys up to witness the birth if it happens in the middle of the night. I know that they would be interested to see it happen, but the fallout of children being awoken at 2am is crazy. I think we'll just have to see when and how it goes. If she's having trouble, I may not want to include the boys. Especially in the middle of the night.

Shaving a Goat's Ass

(Pictured: Lilo's rear end)
Sorry about the title, but I found the greatest YouTube video on how to shave a goat before kidding and that was the name, "Shaving a Goat's Ass." It was so clear. And the guy was pretty funny too. He had another video about how a fat man catches chickens (he was pretty pudgy). Everyone would think they'd get to see him running around after chickens...but no, he went out to the coop at night and picked one up off the roost! Too funny.

Anyway, we are getting Lilo ready for kidding. One of the things that you can do to help is to shave her. The book I have calls it "crotching" but I haven't found anywhere else that calls it by that name. Who knows. You are supposed to shave the goat about a week before kidding. You shave all the way from the belly button, over the udder, and up to the tip of the tail. We only shaved around the tail and rear end...mainly because the clippers didn't seem sharp enough and I didn't want to be pulling her hair out.

The reason to clip around the vulva is to make clean up after birthing easier. There's lots of goop that gets stuck in long hair. If you shave it, you can clean her up with a wash cloth without pulling goop out of her hair.

The reason for clipping the udder is two-fold. First, the babies might be confused by long hairs and suckle on them instead of the teat - this is what the book said, although I have a hard time imagining this would ever really happen. Second - and why I would do it - is to make it easier to clean up the udder prior to milking. That way you don't have hairs that catch dirt and fall into the milk. Also, you don't pull hair when milking (I guess it's three-fold).

This is the original video...



Lilo was a good sport for most of the time. She definitely didn't like it when I tried to shave her udder (part of the reason I didn't push it). I'll work on sharpening the clippers and then may try her udder once her milk has come in. I think it would be easier to shave when it's tighter anyway.

New Milking Stand

(Pictured: Tumbleweed checking out the new stanchion)

J channeled his energy into building me a GREAT milking stand with a metal stanchion. I pulled apart a couple of pallets and removed all of the nails. J found a few old studs that we pulled out of the house and we started (he started) to build.

The basic design idea came from Fias Co Farms (a great website full of goat information). But J wanted to make a metal stanchion. He took several pieces, bent a few, welded a few, and viola! It is not only beautiful, it is functional. We tried it with Lilo and Tumbleweed. The only challenge is to get a grain bucket that stays lifted up a bit more. The girls can reach, but it's a stretch.

New Piggies

(Pictured: Abraham and George)

Introducing Abraham and George. 8 week old York/Hamp cross. We bought these two feeder pigs for $50 a piece from a pig farmer in Culver. He had over 80 piglets running around in the barn. His farm wasn't beautiful, but he had lots of pigs and at the right price!

These two barrows weigh somewhere around 25 pounds each and will be butcher hogs when they reach 225-250 pounds in about four months. We are hoping to really track the feeding and weight gain of these two so that we can get a better picture of the cost involved in raising a true feeder weight pig to butcher weight. This will help us to know what we need to be selling pork at per pound (and whether or not the cost to raise will be prohibitive to selling).

K is interested in doing 4-H, so we may end up using these guys for that. The only real difference in raising for home butcher and raising for 4-H is the feed. With 4-H, you are working toward a weight goal at a specific time. We will have to use a higher protein feed for 4-H to get these guys up to weight in time for Fair. We'll see how it goes.

Hammy's PG

Well, we hope that Hammy Fae is pregnant now. We took her over to her "boyfriend's house" on Thursday evening and picked her up tonight. I had hoped to time the date right so that Hammy would be in standing heat over the weekend. It looks like today was the day.

The boar, Major, is a BIG Hampshire cross. He probably weighs around 500 pounds. Last time, he was just too big for Hammy to handle. He would try to mount her and she'd almost immediately fall over under his weight. Not this time.

J and I went over this morning to check on the progress. We just happened to come at the right time. As we drove up to the pen, Major was sniffing and nudging Hammy's behind. He tried to mount a couple of times, but she moved. We pulled up to say hi. Hammy looked beat. She is still quite a bit smaller than him (weighing MAYBE 200-225 pounds). While we sat there, Major started lovin' on her again and this time successfully mounted her. We even saw contact at the right spot. Whether or not his swimmers made it to the right place, we'll have to wait and see. But he was definitely in the right place at the right time.

We left Hammy there for the remainder of the day. When we went to pick her up this evening, we barely had to open the gates to get her into the trailer. She had NO hesitation about leaving. I think it was pretty tiring for her. Major's pen is very muddy. He is the alpha so I'm sure he got the lion's share of the food. And he doesn't get fed grain in a bucket like ours do. He is given produce right onto the pen floor (which I mentioned is mostly mud).

It was a bit strange when we brought Hammy back in with Kevin tonight. At first he was really excited to see her. Then he was too excited to see her. He and Hammy started arguing and he actually rammed her into the fence. We moved him in with the goats for a few minutes (much to Lilo's dismay) and let him smell her through the fence. We also gave Hammy a chance to eat and drink without being accosted. When we let him back in, they seemed to readjust to each other quite well. They are now hunkered down together in the shed like they were never apart. I hope Hammy gets a really good sleep tonight. She deserves it.

How Much Food Does Your Family Eat in a Year?

This was the question that J asked me today. How much food do we eat in a year? It's a hard question to answer. Not only that, but I knew where he was headed...namely, what would it take for us to grow/raise enough food fod our family to eat in a year?

I tried to look at what we eat in a week, but this isn't accurate because we will not be growing pretzels or corndogs. It boils down to "How much food does a family of five NEED to eat in a year?" Because we really eat much more than is necessary. And the variety of foods that we eat are unnecessary (and false variety) if we really diversified our meals to include more whole foods.

Since I really couldn't answer the question, I decided that maybe I should look at how much of a garden we usually grow and what percentage of that garden supplements our meals.

With that in mind...I usually plant a 20x20 garden. We get a few of each veggie to eat during the harvest season, but nothing overwhelming and certainly not enough to can or freeze (with the exception of zucchini maybe). I rarely see sugar snap peas come in the house as the kids graze them throughout the summer. Tomatoes haven't really produced well and if they do fruit, they end up in a brown paper bag on the counter to ripen after the first August frost kills the vine. I also don't plant a huge variety, nor do I put much thought into where I plant things in the garden. It's just a row of this and a patch of that.

So...we're going to change a few things. J would like to attempt TWO ACRES!!!! I want to go on record stating that I think he is nuts if he thinks we can keep up with that large of a garden, but we can certainly try. I'm thinking maybe we just double our 20x20 - figuring that it will give us some food to preserve - and then multiply that size by however many families we would like to feed in addition to ours...say 10. But that's nowhere close to two acres.

Ok, so I need to think bigger. I have calculated out just the starts that I need to grow inside (tomatoes, peppers, squash) and it comes to 2600 plants. Wow. We'll see. That would cover most of the house with plants.

The next thing we're changing is diversity. I am going to grow some of almost everthing that we can grow in this climate (and a few things that we might not be able to grow). We will have potatoes, tomatoes, squash - winter and summer, pumpkins, watermelon (small heritage variety that should make it here), pole beans, peas, strawberries, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, herbs, garlic, onions, lettuce, beets, carrots, radishes, and raspberries. I think that's all...oh, and corn. This way we will have some of a lot of things. Diversifying our garden will diversify our meals (without buying cheez-its).

The third thing we're changing is the planting map. I have been spending a lot of time looking at which plants make good bedfellows. An example that I find fascinating is corn, pole beans, and squash. Planting these three veggies in the same bed allows for some great sharing. The corn is a huge nitrogen eater...the beans are a great nitrogen maker. The beans use the corn stalks as a trellis for growing (without harming the corn apparantly). The squash uses the corn as a shade while it is growing so it can avoid sun scald. Then in turn, it deters weeds from growing between the corn and beans by covering the ground with its own tendrils. Interesting, eh?

I am planting veggies as partners or trios. Some veggies compliment each other with what they give to and take from the soil. Some veggies deter insect predators from eating other more susceptible veggies. Some plants (not just veggies) deter animal predators with their scent. While our garden will not be perfect blocks and rows of certain veggies, it will be working more harmoniously as a habitat. They call this permaculture. We can only try it.

K the Farmer

(Pictured: K on the Kubota)

J wasn't home this morning and I asked K if he could go down to the barn, ask grandpa for help, and drive a bale of hay out to the horses with the golf cart. Before I knew it, the tractor was heading up the drive. K had started it up, gotten help with loading the hay, and drove it out to the horses. Dropped it off, broke it open, and fed them.

He then came back, hooked up the drag (an old roll of chain link that we put a pipe through), and dragged the road till it looked great!

LOAFA Conference and Pop Doors

J and I attended the OSU Living on a Few Acres conference today. All I can say is, WOW. So much to learn. The focus of the conference was on pasture management and rumenants, but there were also classes on canning and season extension.

J and I both came back with lots of new ideas for our farm. The most inspiring things for me were the vast number of options for someone with land. We have started to look at permaculture in a different way. We are talking about windbreaks that serve also as wildlife corridors and cultivatable plants. We're looking into how greenhouses and covered gardens can extend our growing season by several months. We are designing ways to pasture our animals so that each can benefit from planted grasses, but also from the animals that graize before.

I had a weird idea (only weird because nobody else seems to do it). I want to figure out how to create pop doors for chickens to access all pastures through. There is really nowhere that chickens shouldn't be allowed to go. They are beneficial in almost all environments. My girls know to lay in the coop (something that I can encourage by keeping them locked in their pen until noon). Some people say that they mess up bedding in other animal pens, but I haven't seen a chicken do more damage than a pig or a goat.

Here's my thought. Create a small frame that is clamped onto the field fence (or gate) about 8-10 inches about the ground. Cut the fence out of the center of this frame (the frame is only about a 6x8 opening). The chickens can hop up and in or out but the animals on the inside of the pen cannot escape through the small opening. If there are small piglets or goats, either close the door for awhile, or watch to make sure they truly cannot get into the hole. Piglets wouldn't be able to get up 10 inches off the ground and goats wouldn't be able to get through the hole with their akward long legs. That's my idea. We'll see.

Watering Time

(Pictured: Craig with Diesel, J, M, K, and Z)

When the weather warms up above freezing, even for a day, we take advantage and clean out all of the water troughs. It may seem like a small thing, giving the animals water, but it is so important...and it's quite a chore when you've got so many different pens to keep up.

One of the best things we did was to build the water trailer. It's not pretty, but it beats dragging garbage cans full of water out to the horses every day. The water trailer is a 500 gallon water barrel that J fixed with a valve. The valve comes out the back and when you add a section of 2 1/2 inch pvc to it, you get a pretty good stream of water going.

We have to fill the water trailer about once a week, depending on the weather. It waters enough for about four full troughs. Sometimes we pull it with the car, but more often, we hook it up to the old tractor, the kids climb on top, and we hold on like it's a carnival ride.

Mucos Plug and Pin Bones

Lilo has started to lose her mucos plug. This is a good thing...it means that the pregnancy is progressing well. But it reminded me of something I wanted to share, namely the importance of the relationship I have with my animals.

When I go out every morning and every afternoon to feed the animals, it's not just a chore. It's part of an ongoing assessment of my animals, their health and wellbeing, their environment, and their needs. I notice things that someone who just throws out feed would not. This is important because it helps me as a small farmer to identify problems early on and correct them before it means loss of life.

I know how quickly Hammy and Kevin should run out when they hear the grain being poured. I know how many chickens should be gathered at my feet as I walk to the coop. I know how Lilo and Tumbleweed greet me at the gate. If these things are different, I can investigate further. A pig who doesn't run out to eat may have a problem.

One thing that I am hoping to do is notice the subtle signs that Lilo gives off before kidding. I am starting to check the ligaments just above her pin bones. As she gets close to kidding, these ligaments will soften to the point that I may not even feel them. If I start now, I will be accustomed to how they feel normally and be able to detect the changes as they come. This will become part of the feeding routine for me...in addition to her scratches and morning conversation, I will feel for those ligaments. If I learn this well, I may be able to predict the birth within 24 hours.

Relationships are important with your animals. Even with the animals you intend to butcher. Especially with the animals you intend to butcher...don't you want to know how healthy your food is from tip to tail? Isn't that one of the goals of raising your own meat? I know it's one of mine.