Loose hay

Our hay mow is up above the main level of our old dairy barn. Upstairs we normally store all of the hay that the main floor pens, the horses and the lean (usually the weaned calves) eat in a given winter/spring. well since we have had a drought the past two years and are short of hay (that's in the next blog) i've been trying to utilize every bit of hay. In the photo above you'll see some of the well fed pygmy goat does trying out their new feeder LOL. Its really the wall of the pen. I used hog panels and 2" x 6"s to make a sturdy wall, yet allow all sunlight to come through.

The loose hay is the hay that accumulates after you throw the bales down from above, open them up and move them to their respective pens. I hadn't swept the aisles in a while (I know shame on me) and this 'pile' of loose hay was getting in the way! Every day when the girls get let outside they stop to munch a mouthful or two, well knowing they have hay outside as well. So today I thought i'd try pushing all the loose hay against the fence/wall and try to pile it up so they could eat it. I could never do this with the sheep as their fleece would be a disaster waiting to happen, but with the goats, who cares!

These girls are showing you how it works. While they can't get their heads through, they can get enough of the hay through the wires to eat for the evening and I"ll repile it in the morning and every morning until its all gone. saves a few bales and I don't have hardly any waste! See I can be creative when I need to be!

Bachelor Party

Well the boys (except for Jazz) all got put back together. The bucks and the rams. For the most part they seemed to get along but Hansel and Reese and Barish thought they had to constantly bash each other. even standing out there and picking them up and throwing them on their backs and yelling in their faces didn't seem to phase them. Well I showed them! After adding lots of cheap vanilla extract to their butts and noses and foreheads I crowded them all into a 3x 6' area where they could all lay down if needed, but not really bash or move much for that matter. I didn't want to press my luck so I'm leaving them in there for another night and we'll see how they do tomorrow morning when I open them up a bit.

This is Caspian. In the photo he was trying to climb up over the other boys to get to me to PLEAD with me to let him out. I went to do the rest of my chores and when I came back Caspian had climbed these tiny 1"x2"'s that I use for a brace in that pen and got OVER the wall and was raoming the barn freely like he didn't have a care in the world! He saw me and came running over to me to greet me. Greeting him wasn't really on my mind but I have to give the guy credit for be creative.

Permanent Christmas Tree

Well its not a Charlie Brown tree. Its native to California I believe. My mom has had one for a long time and its only reached 3 feet tall. its beautiful. I decided to buy the largest one I could (14" pot) and its 7 feet tall! It has surpassed all my expectations and is beautiful. Better yet Rayna got me some Cardigan Christmas tree balls with different colored cardigans on them doing various activities. Better yet my dogs DON'T pay attention to it and it takes up that bare spot in my living room. I think it looks pretty. But then again I'm a guy and I'm single LOL. Any tree at this point is good right?

Christmas photo

Clockwise: Mac, Oliver, Sadie and Zoe

Thanks to Krisma Images for taking such a great photo of the Babies!

Its official!!! I'm crazy!!

Just enough to tease, and for you to keep wanting more ;)

Pygmy Goat breeding groups seperated

Well the Pygmies are seperated. It wasn't a dramatic event. I showed the boys the door and they ran out of their pens probably thinking they were getting a 'fresh' group of girls. OR they thought GET ME OUT OF HERE these girls are MEAN!

I am so amazed at how this years breeding groups went. Of the two remaining bucks I have, both have been disbudded as babies. They have better manners, don't bash the walls, and don't smell nearly as bad (the scent glands were also rolled over while being disbudded so they weren't so pungent). I must say I am going to disbud all of my Pygmies from this point on. Not only is it necessary for showing, but they are all around nicer to be around. Granted they are harder to catch with no horns (they make such great handles) but I have adapted by putting dog collars on the lot of them. The girls with the horns are just too vicious towards the disbudded girls and so I am going to have the vet out here to dehorn the adults that still have the horns. Fortunately she knows HOW to do this and I just have to help hold!

the sheep are in their breeding groups until around Christmas time. I put them in on Halloween so that should give them three times to cycle. I haven't seen a single one being bred yet, but have seen a lot of squatting and peeing in front of the rams, followed by the lip curl of the rams. I've seen several of the goats bred, but maybe they aren't as 'shy' as the Shetlands :)

I also need to get our bovine vet out to preg check our herd. Any open girls get a one way ticket out of here, and then the rest must get sorted as to who is staying and who is available for sale. With the drought we have had the last few years our supply of extra hay is gone and we don't want to buy TOO much hay if we don't have to. If anyone would like some beef processed if we have open girls, be sure to let me know. Its all natural, no hormones or things like that, all grass fed.

Welcome to my Blog!

Well hi there :)

Glad you stopped by. Yes I'm still alive. No I am not sick anymore. I am ready for winter to be over (where did all this snow come from?!!)

I was deathly sick for a good solid 9 days before getting better. since then i've been on the rampage. I've been eating super healthy, running three miles a day, drinking only water and 100% juice (no caffeine!) and have been tanning. I know this last thing is a bit of a negative but FWIW, I need this extra time of direct sunlight. There aren't many days in the winter that are not overcast and it becomes dreadfully boring here and lonely in the winter months. Short amount of daylight and way less time spent outside, doing the things i do. Chores make it, well a chore, to get out of the warm house and tend to the animals. Once I"m out there though, the animals envelope me and i can't resist sitting and talking with all the different groups of critters I have. Its quite relaxing and refreshing.

The past few days we have been hit with about a foot of snow. It snowed in a way where I had to go one entire evening, the following entire day and then this morning. Next storm is supposed to hit tomorrow morning through wednesday am and I'm so exhausted from moving so much snow so fast in such little time that I'm quite honestly overwhelmed! I even had to bring in the dad and brother-in-law and MAKE them volunteer to help me. I'd still be out there if they hadn't helped me out!

There are 100 things I could think of to blog about. But none seem so exciting to post about them. I'd call all of my readers and talk but quite frankly at the end of the day I'm so beat I'd rather just sit and stare at the wall (or watch my corgis as they are so dang entertaining). So bear with me a few more days and after I get back from pushing more snow , and then off to a pigeon show in Des Moines and then a dog show in St Cloud, I'll hopefully have a few days where I can catch up and blog my little heart out.

So starting next week it'll be helpful if you check back often during the first part of the week to see all the new posts I"ll be writing. They may not have photos (which sure make for a more enjoyable reading IMHO, but they'll bring you up to speed on what i've been doing.

Thanks Sabrina for calling me to check on me, and to Michelle for the email to see where I ran off to. Its appreciated!

I'm not dead, just sick!

Farmers are the only people I know that still have to work when they are sick. Even on their death bed, the needs of the animals depend on the farmer. I've been sick for awhile, first with sinus and head colds and now with the all out flu. I don't get sick often, but don't realize how much I actually NEED to do each day when I AM sick.

I've had a hundred things to blog about, but too sore, tired, and miserable to be able to do much. Everytime I feel good, I go out and do chores only to feel bad again. Last evening my dad did my chores. Its not something I ask of often as its my responsibility, not his. I missed my time with the critters. I hate sitting around and I hate watching TV. You can only watch so much and sit for so long and I've done it for four days. That's four days too many!

I promise to be back soon. I know you've missed me ;)

Official Breeding Groups, Part 1

The breeding groups here at White Pine Shetlands are set in stone now! The 2008 lambing season will consist of three rambs from my farm, and two from Cynthia's farm, for a total of five different rams used.

Firth of Fifth Amaan is an F1 Orion son out of FirthofFifth Autumn. He is a handsome boy who is quite soft, uniform fleece, and modified to boot! I am planning on breeding RYL Rachildas to him. Rachildas is a super crimpy white illget who carries Ag and spotting. If anyone remembers, I also have Rahu, her daughter from this year who is out of Wintertime Black Forrest, the black gulmoget of Meghan Namaste's. At any rate, Rachildas should have twins and I look forward to having some Orion in my flock.

Wintertime Black Forrest is a black gulmoget who is very soft, crimpy and single coated. I am breeding his daughter, FirthofFifth Tailka back to him in hopes of getting more gulmogets that are free of the side pattern. Tailka herself has a more intermediate fleece but WOW is it soft!

Also being bred to Forrest is Underhill Peep, my musket girl that I just picked up from Gail Former. She is quite the adorable girl, with soft eyes, consistent fleece and pretty nice confirmationally. I'm hoping for an Ag Gulmoget (no, really!) after seeing Underhill Dancer...that Gulmoget face on the Ag body is adorable! And I hope she's soft too! :)

FirthofFifth Pi Lo Chun is also going to be bred to Forrest. She is a grey katmoget who is out of V Creek Silver and she is perfectly marked for a kat. A kat or gul would be ok from this breeding :)

White Pine Heath, a linebred Winter Sky Tennyson son, who is a very dark moorit, with perfect horns and tail, very single coated handsome boy will be bred to four shetland ewes. White Pine KitKat and Musketeer (fawn kat and musket respectively) and their mother FirthofFifth Jasmine Phoenix (Ag, katmoget) are all being bred to Heath to help make the colors more rich, while softening up the fleeces and shortening them up. Also in this group is Winter sky Laya, who is an Orion F1 daughter. She is a horned mioget with incredibly soft fleece and her micron report was a tight bell curve that is totally impressive. Her mother is Heath's Grandmother, so it will be a line breeding on Underhill Loretta Lynn. I'm excited to see how this tight linebreeding turns out!

Also in this group are my two BFL ewe lambs. I'm not sure if they will cycle this fall, but if they do, they have the potential to throw some colored mule lambs!

The larger two groups will be saved for a later time :)

AI weekend

Well the AI weekend in Ottawa, IL was a success! It was such a great pleasure to meet Mr. Martin Dalley who did the AI'ing. He is one smart guy, and a sense of humor to boot! Many thanks to Chris and Alan Green for opening their home to me and for the great meals! I truly appreciated the talk about fleeces and knitting with Chris and Gail Former. Gail was a great gal! She brought up a group of potential sheep for me to see (I wanted a musket and an Ag grey). Gail is truly a wonderful person to sit down and talk to and is so knowledgeable of Shetlands and with fleeces. I also was able to finally meet Maureen Kock and her brother Johnny. There wasn't much time for chit chatting as they arrived late (like 2am) and we were all up and out of the house getting ready for AI early in the morning. Hopefully I can sit down and chat with Maureen again sometime soon! I was very surprised and EXCITED to see Juliann Budde arrive to assist in the AI procedure!!! She and I were both first timers with the AI and I know we both learned a lot! Juliann's ram lamb she picked up was sure a cute thing too. Have fun with him Juliann!

Saturday after the AI, we went back to Chris and Alan's home and I had Martin, Juliann and Maureen go over the potential sheep for me to purchase. I value their opinions and it was Gail's idea, so I jumped on it! I knew who I was leaning towards and they were all in agreement with me as to who I should take home with me :) I left quite happy! Thanks to everyone for a great weekend!

On the way home I decided to pit stop at Cynthia's farm to visit my three girls that are staying there for the breeding season. It was really nice to see how my gulmoget ewe lamb has grown up and to see how the AI lambs were growing so nicely. Very impressive and uniform group of girls Cynthia! As always its so nice to sit and talk sheep with you and go over breeding groups and fleeces with you!

I came back late sunday night after spending the day with a college buddy of mine in Tomah and started the work week in full swing on monday morning! Monday night I did worming and hooves and put the rams with them on tuesday morning. April 1st lambs! I'd hope to have them all lambed out before I go back to work in the spring!

One step forward, two steps back

Well I wanted to post the other day about not being able to catch the mink. I left the duck carcasses in the pen to entice him back, but he kept eluding the traps. Monday morning (about a week after the ducks were killed) I went about my normal morning chores; bringing hay out to the pasture, letting the girls out to eat it, filling water tubs, checking mineral tubs, feeding my new chickens etc. I noticed a very pungent ferret like smell in the one silo room I have to walk through to get outside. "odd", I thought. He must have been in here not too long ago. Well I looked down and much to my surprise there was a mink in the trap! It didn't look very big! Was this the big buck male I'd been waiting for? Well it was a mink nonetheless, and I disposed of it. I proudly let my two remaining ducks and two guineas out into their pen again! I left them out there for the night too, as it as a balmy 56 degrees and a full moon!

The next morning I went out to feed the ducks and I saw a duck pulled halfway through the fence. "I thought I got rid of all the carcasses" I thought to myself. OMG its the BLACK HEN!

ANOTHER MINK !!!!!! THERE WAS MORE THAN ONE!!!

So off to reset traps, I called our trapper friend and he didn't bring any more traps out, and just left the one trap set up again. I pulled the duck out and by the other trap, by morning this morning its pulled back to the hole in the fence and nearly completely eaten. Whatever it is is quite hungry and if its the buck mink we NEEd to catch him!

Ducks and Chickens are anywhere from 5-20 dollars each. IF he'd get into any one of my pigeon pens, we are talking THOUSANDS of dollars! And I can only think of hurting the mink so much and it still won't make me get my birds back or make me feel any better.

Fortunately I was able to collect the two guinea hens and bring them back into the barn. My chocolate Swedish duck amazingly flew OVER the fence and back into our stock pond where she lived all summer. She's probably safer there than she is in the barn :(

Will keep you posted