The one thing about living on the farm is that every day is different and that can be good or it can be bad.
I get up with the sun and sometimes later, but usually always before 7a.m..
I hear Trixie (our Oberhasli goat) pitching a fit as I walk out the door. She is usually my first matter of business. I bring out the milk pail and wash bucket, which has warm water and soap and a rag.
Trixie loves to drink out of the wash bucket and she is not the only one. I have had pigs go crazy for it as well as Sissy my Guernsey cow.
I usually have Trixie stand on a couple of stumps we have in her pen and I sit on another and milk her. Because I have not been locking up her three brats I have been taking her out of the pen and milking her there.
Her brats: William, Maggie and Dollie are going on 4 months old and I just can't wait till they are big enough so they can't crawl through the fence anymore. Then my roses will be safe, my peach tree and the various feeds I have in our garage (which is just a really big carport--hence no doors.)
Before I milked Trixie this morning, I went and check on my turkey chicks. These chicks we ordered (though we have some we hatched ourselves). I started with 20 (10 Broad Breasted Bronze, 5 Narragansett, and 5 Blue Slate.)
Last night we had a very big thunderstorm dropping about an inch of rain. When I neared the garage, I noticed the light was not on in the brooder. I found the poults huddled in a ball and to the right of that ball was a Blue Slate poult on it's back. That is the second Blue Slate that I have lost and I haven't even had them a week. So, I changed their water and put a medicine in it just in case that is the problem. Young turkeys are very fragile and are susceptible to a parasite which causes Black Head--which is deadly.
I know my two bigger young turkeys have it and I medicated them last night, but pilled them instead of putting it in their water. I knew something didn't look right with them, but they were not exhibiting the symptom of being sluggish. It was last night when they were roosting that I could get a look at their droppings (which is another symptom) and they were yellow and so I pilled them.
The poults in the brooder have not had contact with anyone else (except the one that somehow got out and followed me to the pig pen two seconds after I got them).
So, back to the chores of the day. After milking Trixie, then it is off to milk Carole Jean. Carole Jean is about 3 years old and about a month ago she calved. Brendan and I could not pull the calf and the vet came and tranquilized her and jacked out the beautiful heifer. But it was dead because she had been in labor too long, Carole Jean was not able to deliver on her own (this is her second calf and the first one was pulled too). So, I have been milking Carole Jean , who is half Jersey and half Brahma. She gives about 3 gallons a day.
Carole Jean decided to give me a smack right on the lips. I was standing at the end of her stall when she turned around to come out. On her way by me her mouth met mine full on. I stood there for a moment with my eyes closed and wondering what I was going to do when I remembered the wash bucket at my feet. It had been used to wash the udders of both Trixie and Carole Jean and now to clean my face of the slimy feed that was now stuck to my lips.
Also at this time everyone else gets fed. Carole Jean is very patient while I feed the rest of the cows. We have 3 calves on the ground and hopefully two more coming from my Jerseys--but they are not looking that prego.
I didn't milk Annie this morning because she took off after the group feeding. Annie is some sort of Hereford mix , who had her first calf, we called Emma. Annie has turned out to be an excellent milk cow for her first time. I have milked her several times and she stood like an old pro.
Next comes the chickens, turkeys and ducks to be fed. I have some in pens or cages that are fed separately--the rest run rampant all over the property and sometimes across the street. It is like a stampede when I let them out of their coops (we have 2 coops)
I also cleaned out a small brooder cage and moved in a hen with her three babies.
Then the pigs: Thursday the youngest (who we bottle raised in the house because of being the sole survivor of the litter in which her mother was sick for a week). Her dad, Guster was also at the gate (he is about 600lbs) and bringing up the rear is Bonnie her grandmother (who is 600lbs) and Sierra her mother who is about 400lbs. Once they are fed, I open their gate so they can get out into the pasture to graze and wallow in their favorite puddle.
The pigs and goats share the back pasture as the cows have left for another one after eating.
I changed some waters out and decided to change out the fly catchers as they were full. I dumped them out on the ground so the chickens can feast on the maggots that were growing. Gross, I know, but it is a source of protein.
Next, I had to find the source of their attraction (rotten eggs). I have 4 turkey hens that have been camped out in the back of the garage in a box for months now. Every now and then there is a couple of chickens camped out with them. This morning there was a black hen and as I reached for a couple of nasty eggs, she jumped and pecked me in the eye and side the nose. She even drew blood on the nose.
It is all fun and games till someone loses and eye--and I am thankful that she didn't really hurt my eye.
Now it is about 9:30 and time for breakfast.
I get up with the sun and sometimes later, but usually always before 7a.m..
I hear Trixie (our Oberhasli goat) pitching a fit as I walk out the door. She is usually my first matter of business. I bring out the milk pail and wash bucket, which has warm water and soap and a rag.
Trixie loves to drink out of the wash bucket and she is not the only one. I have had pigs go crazy for it as well as Sissy my Guernsey cow.
I usually have Trixie stand on a couple of stumps we have in her pen and I sit on another and milk her. Because I have not been locking up her three brats I have been taking her out of the pen and milking her there.
Her brats: William, Maggie and Dollie are going on 4 months old and I just can't wait till they are big enough so they can't crawl through the fence anymore. Then my roses will be safe, my peach tree and the various feeds I have in our garage (which is just a really big carport--hence no doors.)
Before I milked Trixie this morning, I went and check on my turkey chicks. These chicks we ordered (though we have some we hatched ourselves). I started with 20 (10 Broad Breasted Bronze, 5 Narragansett, and 5 Blue Slate.)
Last night we had a very big thunderstorm dropping about an inch of rain. When I neared the garage, I noticed the light was not on in the brooder. I found the poults huddled in a ball and to the right of that ball was a Blue Slate poult on it's back. That is the second Blue Slate that I have lost and I haven't even had them a week. So, I changed their water and put a medicine in it just in case that is the problem. Young turkeys are very fragile and are susceptible to a parasite which causes Black Head--which is deadly.
I know my two bigger young turkeys have it and I medicated them last night, but pilled them instead of putting it in their water. I knew something didn't look right with them, but they were not exhibiting the symptom of being sluggish. It was last night when they were roosting that I could get a look at their droppings (which is another symptom) and they were yellow and so I pilled them.
The poults in the brooder have not had contact with anyone else (except the one that somehow got out and followed me to the pig pen two seconds after I got them).
So, back to the chores of the day. After milking Trixie, then it is off to milk Carole Jean. Carole Jean is about 3 years old and about a month ago she calved. Brendan and I could not pull the calf and the vet came and tranquilized her and jacked out the beautiful heifer. But it was dead because she had been in labor too long, Carole Jean was not able to deliver on her own (this is her second calf and the first one was pulled too). So, I have been milking Carole Jean , who is half Jersey and half Brahma. She gives about 3 gallons a day.
Carole Jean decided to give me a smack right on the lips. I was standing at the end of her stall when she turned around to come out. On her way by me her mouth met mine full on. I stood there for a moment with my eyes closed and wondering what I was going to do when I remembered the wash bucket at my feet. It had been used to wash the udders of both Trixie and Carole Jean and now to clean my face of the slimy feed that was now stuck to my lips.
Also at this time everyone else gets fed. Carole Jean is very patient while I feed the rest of the cows. We have 3 calves on the ground and hopefully two more coming from my Jerseys--but they are not looking that prego.
I didn't milk Annie this morning because she took off after the group feeding. Annie is some sort of Hereford mix , who had her first calf, we called Emma. Annie has turned out to be an excellent milk cow for her first time. I have milked her several times and she stood like an old pro.
Next comes the chickens, turkeys and ducks to be fed. I have some in pens or cages that are fed separately--the rest run rampant all over the property and sometimes across the street. It is like a stampede when I let them out of their coops (we have 2 coops)
I also cleaned out a small brooder cage and moved in a hen with her three babies.
Then the pigs: Thursday the youngest (who we bottle raised in the house because of being the sole survivor of the litter in which her mother was sick for a week). Her dad, Guster was also at the gate (he is about 600lbs) and bringing up the rear is Bonnie her grandmother (who is 600lbs) and Sierra her mother who is about 400lbs. Once they are fed, I open their gate so they can get out into the pasture to graze and wallow in their favorite puddle.
The pigs and goats share the back pasture as the cows have left for another one after eating.
I changed some waters out and decided to change out the fly catchers as they were full. I dumped them out on the ground so the chickens can feast on the maggots that were growing. Gross, I know, but it is a source of protein.
Next, I had to find the source of their attraction (rotten eggs). I have 4 turkey hens that have been camped out in the back of the garage in a box for months now. Every now and then there is a couple of chickens camped out with them. This morning there was a black hen and as I reached for a couple of nasty eggs, she jumped and pecked me in the eye and side the nose. She even drew blood on the nose.
It is all fun and games till someone loses and eye--and I am thankful that she didn't really hurt my eye.
Now it is about 9:30 and time for breakfast.