Well, a month after kids hit the ground, I’ve finally made time to sit down and post about it! Twas a warm and sunny March 18th. I let Tisl and Ruma graze the meadow freely to their hearts’ content. Tisl bred 4 days before Ruma, and theoretically today was her due date. The girls hadn’t been out of the barn long before I heard Ruma nickering with concern. She wandered around the barnyard and towards…
Tag: goats
“Tattling on the Freedom Goat”
It was after dark. I was sitting down to dinner in my tiny house. Toli the Dog was on guard duty outside, the barnyard had been put to bed, and as far as I was concerned, my day outside had come to a close. But then I heard a turkey hen chirp. It wasn’t a red-flag alarm. She called out in singular chirps. “PIP!” ….. “PIP!” …… “PIP!” Something she didn’t like was entering her…
“Goats and Calcium Stones”
A lot of farmers are aware that many ungulates are prone to urinary calculi. These are stones, kidney and bladder stones, that can potentially clog the urinary tract. The risk is greater in male animals due to their more petite urinary tract, compared to the females’. It’s said that intact males fair better than males castrated young, as they are able to develop larger tracts, but it seems like most of the horror stories I’ve…
“A Post About Today: April 16th, 2021”
It’s been a quiet and productive spring thus far. 2 of the 4 greenhouses are fully seeded/planted for the year. The upper greenhouse is about 1/3 planted, and only limited to that because we’ve only managed to create grow beds in 1/3 of the whole structure! Little sprouts are cropping everywhere. The currants are flowering, and the new kiwis are just putting out leaves. In another month or 2, the greenhouses will be stuffed full…
“A Goat Update: Kids, Milk, & Cheese”
We are now 2 weeks from Ruma’s traumatic birthing experience and she is doing wonderfully. At no point did she threaten me with uterine infection or complications. PHEW! She’s stayin’ plump and lookin’ beautiful as ever. Never did I envision myself someday following a female goat around, carefully sniffing her vulva and noting how it smelled each day… We have each doe down to 1 kid each and are milking the ladies twice a…
“Baby Goats Have Arrived!”
BABY GOATS! After 5 months of eager anticipation (the last 2 months of which were even more eager once we stopped milking in late January and instantly began missing fresh cheese), we have beautiful baby goaters! Tisl birthed first, 48 hours later than her technical due date. She was stealth-preggers, barely showing any baby bulge right up to birthing. I expected only 1 kid out of her. But she produced 2 beautiful kids. I had…
“The Goat Ripped Her Teat Open”
I put Ruma on the stanchion one morning, as per usual, and knelt down to milk. “Wait- blood? Fresh blood? Where is it- oh wow… Ew.” She had somehow snagged her teat on something and tore it clean open, nearly 2 inches long. A very unsettling mixture of blood and milk was weeping out of the gash. Gross. Super gross. So I milked out her good side, trying not to look at the wound too…