Hooray for Good Fencing

Finally, the goat bucks are fenced apart from the does again.

We are thrilled to have a new section of fencing in place. Most of this "new" pasture was enclosed with high tensile wire when we first moved here. While we kept the interspersed electric fence wires hot, this made a good enclosure for horses, but not for our ruminant population.

Now that our good friend Jeff and his sidekick Jerry have stretched sheep-and-goat fence in place of the high tensile wires, we have a solid goat enclosure. True, it still has gaps at the bottom that will allow young kids through, but I like to have spaces through which the livestock guardian dogs can move easily.

Indeed, the coyotes have been ringing the farm on three sides of late when they start up their yammering chorus at dusk. I feel safer when the dogs can reach all of our land. Where the dogs roam, the coyotes do not venture. (The coyotes have plenty to eat beyond the perimeter of this farm.)

Since the field fence enclosing the home pasture, our last existing woven wire enclosure, is crumbling with age, the goats have been running together as one herd for some weeks now. This was fine when the does were in season and open for breeding, but Marcie is big enough with kids that she has slowed some of late. And while both of our Nubian does were bred at the same time as Marcie, they both came into season again recently.

Come next breeding season, we will be able to control breeding once again and to choose which buck covers which doe. For now, we are relieved to simply have the goat bucks contained. Now that they are a herd of two (except when the twin kids wriggle in to roam with them), the pair is getting along better. When they were competing for the does' attention, the elder buck, Hank, was stern about keeping young Studebaker in line.

'Tis the Season for Mistletoe

Taylor stoops to savor a branch of mistletoe.

The windy autumn days bring more than falling leaves and the occasional loose branch to the ground. On those stormy days where the winds whip busily through every nook and cranny they can find, the mistletoe has begun to shake loose. Goats relish the taste of mistletoe and snap it up quickly when it falls.

The other afternoon little Taylor, one of the twin kids, ventured through the cattle panel by the gate to follow me while I fed the other creatures. (Shea, the other twin, is already having a hard time squeezing through the same openings. They grow so quickly.) I took a minute to watch her antics.

Mmm, tasty!

Even when time is tight, a minute stolen to watch the animals is invariably time well spent. They explore the world with an interest that we humans seem to lose periodically. Each blade of grass or nibbled branch appears new, fresh, and delectable. I do not believe I have ever seen a goat appear to be bored.

Taylor stayed down playing with her mistletoe until practically all the leaves had been devoured off of two separate branches. As soon as I moved to enter the upper portion of our farm, though, she quickly raced after me, eager to nurse should I put a doe on the stand. In another two weeks, she'll have her first taste of being weaned. The does need to gather strength for the kids in their wombs.

The New Hens are Laying

The new poultry with their nest box and personal livestock guardian.

Our new hens are laying. The first egg we found was a medium-size standard new pullet egg, with a brown shell. Since the new hens and their roos are still confined to a kennel run, I thought it would be nice to provide them with nest boxes. Using the hose, I finished cleaning out the waiting boxes, and after they had drained all day in the sunshine, I lugged a set to the coop and set them atop a pair of logs cut to fireplace length. Lined with a few hands full of hay remnants from the horse pasture, the boxes were set to go.

Recently, when our neighbor's hens abandoned their old nest boxes and moved into the "Chicken Hilton," a very fancy coop with its own fenced yard, I happened to be in the right place at the right time and managed to adopt the two rows of nest boxes. Barbara, a fellow Wilson County Master Gardener and a fine friend, helped me lug them to my truck and told me their history. The pinkish-painted boxes had come to their farm after having served time as book shelves at a local preschool center. A former teacher well-used to scavenging for classroom book shelves, I found the re-homing of the fixtures to farms well-suited to my current life and liked them all the more for their history.

The next time I checked on the hens, one of our white hens had deposited a jumbo size white egg in one of the nest boxes. Since these are young hens, or pullets, I expected that they would all begin by laying small and medium size eggs, but I was wrong. Over the past week we've collected two more white eggs, both jumbo size.

Thanks hens; keep up the good work. We enjoy dining on egg-and-vegetable scrambles frequently, and love the late-season gleanings that provide all varieties of color in those meals. In exchange, I make sure that those caged hens get plenty of fresh greens each day. We will move them onto pasture in time; I would like to see them ranging freely, but still separated from the other breeds of poultry.

We Miss Our Milk

Our newest kids wholly enjoy the blessings of fresh milk.

The new kids have been enjoying all the fresh goat milk they can guzzle for long enough that we humans have exhausted our in-home milk stores. All that is left in the refrigerator is some souring milk awaiting escort to some lucky garden plot. The daily morning smoothies, tall glasses of milk--fresh and warm, or already chilled, and endless batches of fresh ice cream and cheese are but fond memories for now. Although the new kids are bulking up rapidly, once they've been weaned it will be time to dry off the does in preparation for their winter kids. So sad. I look forward to the day when we have enough does again to time breeding and delivery such that we can enjoy fresh milk year-round. 

So recently we enjoyed a comfortable excess of milk. I could guzzle a glass or two on a whim, have milk for a meal or a snack between meals, fold fresh cheese into our eggs with each meal, and savor the cold sweetness of ice cream for a treat. It took us a good week after the new kids arrived to exhaust our personal stores. The wide-mouthed gallon jars that my dad had saved are back on the shelves--clean, dry and empty. They may even revert to storing dry goods again soon, since we won't have fresh milk again until at least February. Ah, I did so enjoy being spoiled while the wealth lasted.

At least we can continue to gain some of the raw milk benefits through our daily intake of Action Whey. Thank you, Emerald Express, for that gift.