Goat breeding and more

 

I mentioned flat-pack cabinets waiting for me to assemble them in the last post, but although they're on the list, they're not at the top; so I only got one of the boxes out of the living room over the past two weeks. There were things that were more time sensitive that needed my attention, such as: 

The bathtub taps. There was some fuss because apparently tub tap cartridges are NOT standardized so we had to order in the replacement parts. Thankfully they were delivered to the store within a week of ordering which was super nice. I got them installed right away and we were able to have showers again.

I've also done the seasonal well filter replacement and flush of the hot water tank so water pressure and clarity are **chefs kiss**.

- - -

As I mentioned before, I've been tracking my goats cycles in order to get Honey bred this year. We also bought a hard-body "dog travel crate" in order to transport the goats safely. Asking around I found a local goat guy who had a buck that would work well for my needs (Dairy breed, not 2 hours away) and I managed to figure out Honey's cycle well enough when they met Nov.22 it was clear he could smell she was ready.

She was shy because she's a first timer but she eventually lifted her tail out of the way so he could get the job done. This means that since she didn't come back into heat 3 weeks later, she's knocked up and we should expect kids April 21st!

Star could smell the Buck on Honey and pouted for a few days but I want her to keep producing into next year. We've dropped down to milking once a day and we're still getting a litre a day which is is plenty for drinking/coffee but not enough for cheese/yogurt/etc experiments.

This is a weird year since we're just starting out. If I bred Star too we'd have to stop milking for 2 months before her kids were born and couldn't take any of the new stuff for a month after which means 3 months of no milk. We should be able to breed both of them next autumn about 3 months apart so there's no weeks without milk.

- - - 

I got back into my coding project and, looking at the mess I left myself trying to do everything at once, I decided to restart with a "Minimum Viable Product". Literally it's just a basic form that would digitize the notes I've been keeping on paper. That was fairly easy with my current programming knowledge.

Now, I'm working on what I'm calling "Minimum Viable Pretty". :-) 

I'm learning what I need to make stuff look good. (Javascript, & CSS to make the HTML fancy) For example, I'm turning that basic form into a "wizard" which just means I can see one question at a time with next and back buttons. This will make it easier to fill out the form on my phone (I can have big inputs instead of trying to zoom) while I'm out at the barn instead of remembering everything to write it down when I get back in the house.

After I get that done I can slowly, one at a time, add the other features I had been trying to do all at once.

- - -

My left wrist/elbow was hurting so I tried to stretch it but wound up needing a brace for basic tasks like dishes. Now my elbow hurts if I were to do something like lift a dinner plate "wrong" without the brace with a general feeling of over-use, so I'm being very careful not to make it worse. (Kinda hard when something as simple as pulling up your pants in the morning might twinge the tendons.) I'm not 100% sure if it's just RSI (from milking/powertools) or if I damaged myself hauling hay or bumping onto something some day and just didn't notice until it caused problems later.

I've changed how I milk Star (sitting beside for a direct angle instead of standing and reaching under) but I can't switch sides or milk from behind because her entire career they milked her from the one side and she developed a significant tilt so if you try to milk from the other side, you can NOT aim at all and the teat just kinda squirts on your hand instead. 

Pretty sure it's (golfer's/tennis elbow) tendinitis because I've had wrist tendinitis from office work before and I know a doc is gonna say ice, elevate, rest, and wait (which DOES work) so I'm going to do that but... "With proper treatment, acute tendinitis caused by overuse will usually resolve within three months, although complete recovery can take up to six months before you can return to sports."  Even if I restricted myself to milking awkwardly with only my right hand (which I have done the past two days), can I really stop using my entire left arm for 3-6 months? Maybe? Probably not. 

As of yesterday, I'm currently giving my left arm 98% of the week off by only using my hand to hold something light such as bread while I butter it, or gently hold a jar on a counter while I use my other hand to dig out the peanut butter. I had my arm in a sling yesterday but that just wound up hurting my neck so today I'm just using the sling when I'm up and doing stuff (like feeding the critters) as a reminder to not use it.

- - -

We had some snow Dec 1 but it quickly melted, and that "weather bomb" that everyone was worried about was only two days of rain with overnight high winds for us. Currently partly cloudy, no snow, and just above freezing. Here's a quick clip of the girls playing next to the barn on Dec 6th.

Two Months! Whoops!

Here's the rundown:

Met the local farmers I was telling you about. We had a lovely evening of food and conversation... and then they had to disappear into one of their busy seasons for several weeks.

Honey took forever to heal that rat bite because she kept scratching at the scab but she's fully healed now and re-furring the area she nibbled bare.

October we got some more hens and I finished the barn wall so the chickens could co-habitate safely.

Isabella and Jennifer had their usual drastic moulting, but thanks to barn, the naked chickens seem to be coping well.

I canned up some chicken and pork when I could find sales to easily add meat to soups and pasta dishes. Defrosting and cooking meat is usually the most annoying part of making dinner.

I've started buying some "easy" food for the days I just want a hot meal without fuss. (Eg: Tin of split pea soup, frozen stirfry microwave dinner, 5 min to heat precooked roast in sauce) It's a lil more expensive but I figure it's worth it for the twice a week or so that I can NOT wait 30 min for food.

Also bought some cranberries on sale after Thanksgiving so I can make some preserves with them. They're frozen until I have time.

When I closed down the summer greenhouse mid October, I couldn't find a good recipe for making shelf stable sauce that didn't involve removing the skins so I dried some and froze some cherry tomatoes. Also made some pickled tomatoes.

Some beefsteak tomatoes and peppers were large but not ripe so I brought them in to ripen.

Hugslut and I were sick with a cold for about 2 weeks. It sucked but we took care of ourselves and it didn't get too bad.

Got the Garlic planted Nov 1st-ish and replanted some cold weather crops. They're likely too late for a harvest before solstice, but definitely a head start on spring.

Gathered a bunch of Rowan "Berries". They're very RED this year instead of orangish. The neighbours say this means a very cold winter is comming.

They're best if harvested after at least one good frost so I waited and now there's a FULL folgers tub in the freezer waiting for me to have time and spoons to turn into preserves.

Hugslut said she's looking forward to Advent of code. It's a programmer puzzle event where there's a new puzzle every day and the programmers use all their skills to solve each puzzle fastest, or just use the puzzles to test and stretch their skills in a new language.

The other day, Hugslut was in the shower and when she got out the hot water would NOT turn off. I turned it off at the shutoff valve and took apart the tap to confirm the cartridge had worn out. We ordered the parts and we pick them up tomorrow.

We've also been working on improving our house by making plans and buying parts. I haven't installed any of the parts yet, but we have replacement faucet for the kitchen sink, cabinets for storing kitchen gadgets and other bits and pieces for rewiring the barn to be safer and more useful (split lighting and gfi outlets).

That's it for this one. I'll write more soon.
 

I smell a rat...

We finally found a rug and coffee table we liked to round out the living room!

before

after

I took to the greenhouse and gave it a heavy pruning. I should have been keeping it pruned all year but the goats and house upgrades and and and... kept stealing my attention. 

I learned a lot this year, and since I already told Hugslut I'm not getting new animals next spring because I'm going to focus on the greenhouse and garden, next year, I should have the time to put into properly pruning and trellising to prevent the manic jungle mess I got this year. I am bringing in lots of golden cherry tomatoes and plenty of cucumbers. Soon it will be time to tear it all out and plant a fall garden of spinach, carrots, radishes, turnips, beets, and green onions.

I had noticed a rat around the barn occasionally and then one morning about two weeks ago Honey had a BITE on her! Best I can figure, it got rolled over on in the middle of the night and bit her in self-defense because it is just the one bite, but... well now, I didn't mind a woodland creature sneaking in to finish off some spilled goat feed while they were out playing but I will NOT stand for injuries to my livestock. Honey is healing up with no infection thanks to twice a day first aid, but she keeps scratching the scab back open so it's taking longer than I'd like.

If you watch the top left corner at the beginning of the clip you see the rat dive into the hole as Star hops down off the milk stand. I had no clue it had been hanging out in there when the goats were around because it ran whenever we were headed to the barn.

hole	template	wooden plate
patched

In addition to patching the hole it was using as a door, I put out a trap under where the hole used to be (which did catch the rat in just a few days). To make sure no future rats could make their way through the patch I put a layer of old screen to hold everything in place, a bunch of bent iron wire from cutting fencing for the barn wall, doused it with spray-foam, and quickly capped it off with a custom cut piece of wood held in place with 3 screws. That's not going anywhere. And as a bonus, the barn is going to be less drafty in the winter. :-)

Speaking of less drafty, today we had the followup Home Energy Assessment and we'll know in about a week or two how much money the government's gonna give back on the upgrades. We would have done it either way because solar + insulation + draft filling means our next winter power bills should be drastically less... but the rebates mean we got our butts in gear to get it all done this year instead of dawdling.

Unfortunately the window replacement doesn't count because we only replaced the part that was broken (the sealed, argon filled glass), which was the part that makes it energy efficient, but because it wasn't a full, new, energy star window..... well, I'm starting to wonder who lobbied to make the rebates that way.

We've been in touch with some other local farmers who might be interested in an RPG game. Keep you fingers crossed for us. It seems everyone's always so busy but I'd really love to get to know some more people.

I suppose that's all for now. Let me know if there's anything you'd like to hear more about or if you have any random questions. I love chatting about our little farm.

Star and Honey reaching and wrestling for the tastiest leaves on a hike.

Updates, updates, updates!

I put up some cameras to keep an eye on the critters. There's one pointed at the goat area, one pointed at the future chicken area, and one pointed under the deck where they like to hang out in the afternoons. I do plan on adding another one or two to capture some yard areas that are hard to see out the windows.

We FINALLY got the bay window installed! Long story short, the factory wasn't believing that they messed up twice so they sent an inspector who confirmed the second window was off-square (and also 1/8" bigger than expected so none of the wiggle room that's usual to allow imperfections like the off-square to work). He got the replacement made and installed it a week later!

It's been months that's I've been trying to get this done and it's finally done! Look at that glorious glass! Shadow's also been enjoying being able to see the chickens from her cat-tree again.  :-)

Now that our house is sealed properly again I have called up the Home Energy Assessment company to come do the follow-up appointment. That will be next month but it will be good to get that to-do item checked off as well.

The greenhouse is doing well considering the chaos. I picked all the green onions and carrots and heavily(but carefully) trimmed the tomatoes to allow the fruit to set and hopefully let more light at the peppers that haven't even bloomed yet.

There was so many carrots and cucumbers and green onions coming out of the greenhouse at once that we were able to send some to the community food pantry with 3 half-dozen-cartons of eggs. (and a store cucumber we realized we wouldn't get to because we wanted to eat the greenhouse stuff)

Our solar system has been good. We got our first power bill since the install and it was just the basic connection fee and we're banking a bunch of kWh for the winter.

The little garden out front has been harvested. Got a bunch of garlic and a bunch of potatoes. Amazing really considering how much I ignored it except to water occasionally.

Heads of garlic hung for curing in the basement.

Small and damaged potatoes and garlic for immediate use.

Box of the biggest and best potatoes wrapped in paper for longer storage.

I peeled and froze all the cloves that were good from the damaged or sprouting garlic. This should save a lot of prep when cooking.

Hugslut dyed her hair black again and is enjoying her new look. I like the hair dyes these days. Not nearly as stinky as in the 90s and left her hair suuuper smooth.

We're planning to breed Honey this autumn in October or November which means I need to start tracking her cycles so we can get her to the buck within the 24-48 hour window she'll be interested before we'd have to wait another 3 weeks. My photos app is FAR too full of goat backends and no, I will not subject you to that. lol Instead, here's the ladies sunbathing.

It's been a whole month and I know I've been busy but I'm not sure what else I could share news wise so I'll close it off here With aphoto taken during the full moon a few days ago.

Vacation

SO! It's been a few weeks. lol

Long drive into Halifax to pickup Wolfie and the rental car (our vehicles didn't really have more than 2 seats so we needed something different).

We did some shopping to make sure everyone was kitted out with hats and muck boots and swim suits for all the activities we had planned, and we went to the Shag Harbour UFO museum.

The window replacement we were waiting on arrived so the installer came to put it in. It was the right size this time, and was properly sealed,... but after he removed the old window (that the previous owner had improperly glued into place with some tar and a gallon of silicone) the installer found out that the new window is not square!

A temporary plywood window later, we're now waiting for a window insurance specialist so come out and confirm the window isn't square and that the factory fucked up again.

Good thing we had just bought supplies for the barn wall the day before so the plywood was available. Wolfie wanted to help out around the farm so I taught him about some chicken and goat care info, and we worked on the wall together. We got the first part completed and installed during the few non-rainy days.

Of course no trip to Nova Scotia is complete without a whole lobster for dinner. I'm so lucky to have neighbours who know the best places to get nice lobsters to cook at home.

The weather finally cooperated near the end of his trip so we went to a few beaches. When we went to see the drowned forest at The Hawk we also spotted a buoy that had been washed up at some point.

Wolfie and Hugslut for scale.

We also went to Mavillette Beach for the best beach experience. So much sand, lovely waves, and the water wasn't very cold at all. After some swimming and some sunbathing, we were all feeling much more relaxed and recharged. I've gotta remember to get in the ocean more.

Wolfie told me he has trouble with cows milk so I made him some goat-only cheeses. The cheddar will need to mature for a year for best results, but I made sure there were some he could enjoy right away.

I installed a couple cameras so we can keep an eye on the critters. I've learned that the goats tend to get up around midnight for a pee and a wander around the barn before settling back down for the rest of the night..... interesting stuff, I know. lol

After all that excitement, Wolfie was safely sent back home, Hugslut is back to work, and I'm officially on vacation this week. I'm NOT working on any big projects this week (such as the second half of the barn wall) and I'm not doing any small projects I don't feel like (such as installing the auto door for the chickens). Hugslut's taking up the slack on the housework, and my only duties are caring for the goats and chickens. Shadow's been couch potatoing with me while I write this.

Good bye Lilly, Hello Wolfie

To get the sad news out of the way first, Lilly died this weekend.

As far as we can tell it was because she's been so stressed lately. The fact that they've only been eating their high protein/high vitamin pellets in the morning and evening means that their diet hasn't been as good lately and she's been not laying for a few weeks. I know that the (mostly) plants they've been eating through the day has been filling their bellies but stressing their bodies. Since the goats were locked up for us to fetch Wolfie from the airport I left them their pellets all day to try to help them, and then we had the goats locked up all Friday while we went to Yarmouth for some necessities, so the chickens had their pellets all day twice almost in a row, and then Saturday when I was making some pork for us, I gave the chickens some scraps. In an attempt to supplement their diet with some pork scraps, I may have caused her death. :-( 

It turns out that when chickens have a low protein diet for a while (like the past month or two) and then get a bunch of meat (like Saturday), there's a chance that a bacteria that is in their guts all the time will go hog wild and cause death within hours. I suppose I'm lucky I didn't loose them all, but, yeah. I'm still feeling guilty about it, but I didn't know what I didn't know and the rest are doing okay.

Before Wolfie got here wasn't really interesting but it was hectic. Hugslut getting home and both of us trying to relax a bit while simultaneously trying to get last-minute stuff (like setting up the spare room) done before he arrived. Wolfie has been settling in and we've been planning what to do this up coming week. Turns out he does like the peppery nasturtium leaves but there's plenty of them to go around so he can have as much as he wants and there will still be armloads for the goats.

We visited the UFO museum in Shag Harbour yesterday and today we're going shopping for the wood/door needed to build the barn wall. Hopefully we can get the chickens their goat free space before any other stress related issues.

Unfortunately it has be VERY foggy this week so we haven't been able to stargaze but maybe it will clear up soon. It's been fun teaching Wolfie farm stuff and also making goat's milk only cheeses for him. Wolfie helped me with the goat's hoof trimming yesterday, and the girls are looking better but their hooves still aren't 100%. Their fur is also getting nice and glossy with no dandruff so the copper really helped. :-) Honey's sore is completely sealed up and not infected so it should just be a matter of time before it's a small scar instead of a scab.

There should be plenty of interesting stuff on the next update but I wanted to get this update out so there's not a big long gap and then ALL THE THINGS to put into one post.

A very weird week or two

The main thing I didn't tell you last post was that Hugslut was going to be going out of town for work. She flew all the way to Barcelona Spain last weekend for a three day in person work thing. Due to the fact that the airport is a 3 hour drive from here, and layovers, and the delayed flight that caused a missed flight, etc etc etc,... getting there took 17 hours. From noon(our time) on Saturday until 5am(our time) on Sunday. Getting home took 26 hours. From 4am(our time) on Friday until 6am(our time) on Saturday.

My poor wifey is (understandably) completely wiped out and is going to be spending this entire weekend just recuperating. I'm also kinda worn out from worrying about her flight back so I'll be mostly chilling too. 

Hugslut did take time off this month and on Wednesday she's got another long drive ahead of her as we drive 3 hours to the airport again to pick up our friend Wolfie and then drive all the way back home as he'll be vacationing with us for two weeks.

So what have I been up to with Hugslut away? I did some catching up on housework, a little programming work on my farm tracking program, but mostly? More cheese. lol

I've made a slightly different 2 gallon batch of goat and cow cheddar to compare against the first one. I did just find out that I can re-wax opened cheese so next time I want a multi-maturity waxed cheese test, I can leave it as one block and re-wax after cutting off the tester chunks. That's so much simpler and tidier than the six tiny cheeses I made the first batch into. I also made a 4 gallon batch of cow and goat Havarti with sage and onion powders mixed in.

The Havarti won't be waxed as this recipe is a "washed rind" variety which just means that I wipe the outside of the cheese every other day with a saltwater solution to prevent any nasties from growing and it should develop a hard skin over the 1-3 months it's maturing.

Speaking of nasties, about a week after her vaccine booster, Honey developed a sore at the injection site. It's probably my fault for putting the injection somewhere that could get bumped while they were roughhousing or she lay down in poop or something. I've kept it clean and it seems to be scabbing up and healing so that's all good.

On the subject of poop, I got quite a scare the other morning. I went out to do my critter chores and found a great big PLOP of stinky poop in the middle of the gravel driveway covered in flies. I hosed it off and found some undigested guts and rabbit (or dog!?) ears inside. Based on the info I can find, it's most likely a black bear (coyote scat looks completely different) and no, I'm not going to post the pics of poop and partially digested ears on here but if you're very curious just text me and I'll send them to you directly.

Since then I've been making sure the chickens fence is electrified every night. I'm not sure it would actually stop a black bear, but it might make it look for an easier meal. 

On a more pleasant note, the garlic scapes have been harvested and I'm looking forward to making a scape and sunflower seed pesto fresh gluten-free linguine for when Wolfie gets here. :-)

The greenhouse is doing well and I've been happy to share eggs and spinach with the neighbours. The spinach and lettuce is doing really well. The tomatoes are starting to flower, the peas are well into flower and are starting to make pods, the nasturtiums are even flowering, and the cucumbers are nice and big now and I'll have to dig past those spikey leaves soon to check if it's flowering yet.

Next year I will need to set up some trellis system and maybe even some drip tape watering, but this year I've already learned a lot about how hot it gets on sunny days and also what variation in lighting patterns there are. For example: where I planted the first batch of carrots and green onions gets a lot of shade from the shelves/potting table in the afternoon. This is likely the best spot for lettuce as it protects them from the hottest part of the day and also makes for easy frequent harvests. The goats have absolutely loved the nasturtium leaves I've harvested for them which is great because they're just far too peppery for all the humans who have tried them. I should see if Wolfie likes them.