Goats, Cattle and Rabbits

Despite making every effort to avoid having any bottle goats, I have ended up with three so far.

 I took some pictures of them today to advertise on Facebook.  I found a site that was call “Bottle Baby Goats For Sale.”  

Who wouldn’t love to take these home. 

Spring cattle working began today with the replacement heifers.

Four shots each, long acting dewormer, 10 way breeding vac, 7 way clostridial, and a multi mineral shot. 

Things went well and it only took an hour.  

Then they were turned out to the back 40.

That left me with some time to work on the eastward expansion of my rock garden.  At least the rabbits seem to like it.

I am going to have to make sure rabbits don’t like whatever I end up planting.

Untouched

While checking the goats this evening I could not help but notice all of the beauty that surrounds us.  The photos are all untouched.  Plus, it is easier to appreciate the scenery when the weather is nice.

The setting sun was highlighting the mountains.

The views seemed limitless. 

The trees were silhouettes.  

And the sky was purple.   It made me think of Sadie and purple being her favorite color.  The other day when she was here in the evening she said she needed to get home so she could see the sky change colors.  I have realized one of the things that makes her so special is her appreciation of beauty at such a young age.

Two Good Days

Well, our tiny goat didn’t make it.  But she had two good days.

She spent the day outside all day yesterday. 

There was another set of twins born yesterday, one was dead and one was nearly dead.  I was able to revive the nearly dead one.  He is back with his mom now.  But while he was convalescing he kept tiny goat company. 

You can appreciate how tiny, tiny goat was.

Then in the evening we had a neighbor bring over a little girl she babysits to see the goats.  Her mother came too.  They just loved tiny goat.  At bedtime she even nursed well.  I guess that was her last hurrah.  I buried her in the flower garden. 

Then, because I needed to do something other than dealing with goats, I rode Otoelene.  We had fertilizer spread on about 65 acres.  That is the fertilizer truck down there in the bottom.

There was a second set of twins.

And can you tell what this is?  The wildlife brush pile is still standing even with the cows in that field.

You never know what each day will bring.  We just have to deal with what comes. 

Birthdays And Other Stuff

We headed to Blacksburg today to celebrate the family April birthdays. 

Three different generations were represented. 

The forth generation enjoyed petting the tiny goat, 

Picking lots of flowers, 

and playing on the swing set.

A neighbor suggested a picture in front of the mill stone that is part of the wall my father built.  I thought that was a fantastic idea. 

I guess I come by my love of rocks naturally.  I remember my father always stopping by the side of the road to pick up a special rock.  I have always thought that this wall was amazing. 

Then it was back to the real world.  Heading up the driveway, Joe noticed a new set of twins.  Cow twins that is, not goat.

As we were getting them to the barn we got covered in ticks.  I really hate theses ticks.

But the twins looked great and the mom was taking them both.  

Then we checked the barn and found a new set of triplets.  This time it was the goats.  

Don’t Get Too Attached

Never get too attached to anything on a farm, especially a goat. 

The weather for the last week has been horrible, cold, windy and raining.  Goats can usually withstand 2 of the three.  But all three at once for days on end has been brutal.  This was a set of triplets born yesterday. The two in the foreground aren’t dead, just cold dishrags. 

They made a trip to the house with another kid for hot water baths, blow drying, heating pad and tube feeding.  Miraculously, they recovered and are in the barn with mom.  I am still supplementing them because it is difficult for a nanny to raise triplets. 

It takes lots of towels and heating devices to get them warmed back up.

Unfortunately, two out of this set of quads were dead on arrival.  We lost several over night on Thursday. I spent 16 hours dealing with the goats yesterday. My fitness app says I walked 7 miles and did 60 flights of stairs.  Our final check was at midnight, 40 degrees, wind gusts up to 40 mph and still raining. 

Today was a better day.

It was still windy but at least the sun was shining and the temperature got up in the 60’s.  Some of the goats even felt like playing.  In the afternoon Emily and Keiran were here and walked though the goats.  Emily came back to the house and insisted that there was a new goat that the mom wasn’t cleaning.  I had just checked and the mom in question has a single she was taking care of just 5 minutes before.  But I went back out (only 5 1/2 miles today) and sure enough she had had a second one and it was the size of a rat.  I thought it was dead but no, it was still breathing.  I thought it would die before I could get to the house with it.  But it managed to stay alive.  I got it warmed up and dried off.

And amazingly, it could sit up.  I weighed it and it was 22 ounces.

 This evening it could stand briefly.  It is still not nursing on its own yet.  

But it enjoyed a little bit of lap time with Keiran.  I am not naming it until it is a week old, because I am not getting too attached. 

Bad For Sale Pictures

This showed up on my iPhone messages. 

 I didn’t recognize the number and there was no contact name.  The picture was small but it looked pretty suspicious. I was afraid to click on it to make it larger because I thought it was some sort of weird porn spam.  I reported it as junk and deleted it.  Then when I checked my messages on my iPad, there was the picture but this time with a trusted contact name.  She knows I enjoy bad for sale pictures an thought this was “a good one.”   I had a good laugh. 

It’s A Rough Place

No eclipse viewing here today, it was cloudy and drizzling rain.   But we had plenty of other things to keep us busy.

Joe came to the house and wanted a long rope and for me to come help.  That red/white face cow had a calf that rolled on off the cliff toward the river. 

He has a ways to go before actually falling in the water.  I started heading him back up the cliff.  Joe said he was walking better than when he had tried earlier so he let me continue to push the calf up the cliff. 

It was a good thing he was walking on his own because there was no way to carry him.  Joe’s idea had been to tie the rope around him behind his front legs and pull him up.  Glad we didn’t have to do that.

And just like that, he was back with mom.

Next came some fence fixing in “no man’s land”.  This is another cliff next to the main road.  We aren’t really sure who owns it but our cattle can get to it and have gotten out there before.

This is the section that we needed to fix.

Joe had a roll of used wire he wanted to roll out and tack up.

It was a struggle to get it past the trees, rocks, road trash, and the old fence. 

But with some pruning, sawing, pushing and tugging we prevailed.  Hopefully, it will give the cows some pause if they go wandering around back there.