30 Mar
Macie, our doeling, doing her best impression of a helicopter:
A bit faster, and she might get enough lift to take off!
As the snow melted in this glorious sunny day, she and her brothers ventured out of the barn to frolic. More pictures are on our facebook page.
They’re 11 days old today and growing quickly – the largest buck is 17.4 lbs, while the smallest is 14.8.
24 Mar
The baby goats are now 5 days old and growing quickly, already skipping around the barn (they’re saving their pasture skipping for when the snow melts). We’ve posted more pics on our facebook page, but here are a couple of them:
19 Mar
When we’re not tending the farm or homeschooling the kids, we’ve got “real world” jobs. My (Martha’s) passion is being a childbirth educator and a doula – Greek for “servant” – a woman who comes alongside families before, during, and after childbirth. You can read more about what I do on my webpage for my business, “A Joyful Birth.”
So today, I was a different kind of doula. I was much more involved with the wet, cuddly newborn side of birth than I usually am as we welcomed baby goats on our farm. We are relatively new to farming, but I was struck by how many similarities there are in birth among mammals.
These mamas craved safety and peace as all mothers in labor do. One of the mamas appreciated my quiet presence, reaching out to nuzzle me — and then after the babies were born, she gently butted me and told me to get out. Each mama “counted fingers and toes” on her baby, licking them dry from head to toe. They also encouraged their babies to nurse when they were ready, patiently giving them time to transition from womb to world. And, like I often see with human babies, they were ready to nurse at about the one hour mark after birth. Goats have a special vocalization that they only make to their new babies. Amazing how wondrous birth is!
I am blessed to have seen birth in its completely natural state (well, except five quiet family members watching) and will ponder the lessons from today to see how I can bring that to my human doula work too.
19 Mar
This is just a quick post (you can check out our Facebook page for more photos) to announce that in the middle of this huge snowstorm, we took a break from other subjects for a biology lesson. We now have four brand new baby Boer Goats – 3 bucklings and a doeling.
We’re busy making sure they are all settled for a cold night, and will post more later!
Blessings to all,
The Flying T
9 Mar
We pasture bred our two older Boer does in October, so we don’t have a tight date on when they’re due but it’s going to be soon. The girls are double-wide, their udders are filling out, and Jessie in particular has started to spend a lot of her time lying down, moaning softly. Good thing I got some time today (after the 4-H activities this morning) to finish up the kidding stalls and warming huts.
The girls were a bit nervous about the new digs, and squished into one stall together for a bit. They calmed down later.
As I wrote earlier, we made the stalls primarily out of recycled hard plastic pallets. However, I got preoccupied with other chores and projects once I got the walls up, so it wasn’t until this week I was able to get the doors completed. I made those doors out of new lumber, mostly because I wanted them to be relatively clean and nail free.
A better view of the door.
You might notice that the center “bar” is connected differently. My plan is, once the kids are older, to remove that center piece and add another one offset to the side to make a barrier for our creep feeder. The idea is to have an opening small enough for the kids to get through to free-feed on grain, but tight enough to keep the greedy adults out. The next trick is to design a feeder to put in the stall that the kids can get to, but the ducks and chickens can’t. That will be a trick.
One of the two warming huts
The warming huts are salvaged 55-gallon poly drums, cut at the 2/3 point. I cut a circular hole in the top for the warming lamps, then used sheet metal screws to mount the brooder lamp fixture. The huts are screwed into the stall divider (which is made of dimensional lumber) to keep the adults from knocking them over.
So now we wait…
6 Mar
Nothing spectacular for most folks, but the Flying T now has its own Facebook page. Please stop by!
13 Feb
The kids made snowmen after Nemo last weekend… and decided it would be appropriate to add a snow goat.
21 Jan
We took advantage of the long, though very cold, weekend to get a passel of projects done. The biggest job was digging out the goat’s stable – like many goat folks, we let it build up relatively thick during the winter, allowing the hay to compost and produce warmth. The disadvantage is that when the cleanup happens, it’s a lot of work. If we could redesign the barn, we’d make it so we could push the tractor’s bucket right into the stalls!
I actually got a reprieve from that big job, and instead was busy with some construction projects and maintenance around the farm. Yesterday I did some light jobs – fixing the chicken coop doors, rearranging the feed room to make room for the brooders, modifying the new duck house. Today, I did a couple more projects while the rest of the family worked their butts off on the goat stall. To keep the goats busy, we gave them the rest of our Christmas Tree – we’ve been handing them sprigs every day, but they made pretty short work of the tree today.
Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree! How tasty are your branches…
The first project today was to build the kidding stalls, as our two older goats, Gracie and Jessie, are due in March. Our plan is to open up the wall between their stall and the adjacent one (formerly the duck stall) and let the momma’s use the extra space. That wall is easy to remove – it’s dimensional lumber that slides in/out of brackets.
Instead of buying plywood and 2x4s (have you seen lumber prices recently?) to make a wall sturdy enough for goats, I salvaged some heavy-duty plastic pallets and put them to work. The resulting stalls are about 5′ x 5′, taking up about half of the 10′x10′ stall and giving us room to make 3rd or even 4th kidding stalls in the future.
Voila! Kidding stalls! I cut a couple rectangular holes in the pallets to let the girls see each other.
I wanted to make walls that would be sturdy, but still could be removed relatively easily, and came up with the idea of hinged walls that folded against the side of the stable.
Jasper watches the walls unfold.
Wall stowed
All that’s left is to make the doors themselves, for which I plan to use some scrap lumber, or maybe wooden pallets. We’ll also make some lamb warming huts with some surplus 55-gallon poly drums I’ve salvaged.
The next project was simple – a tray to catch the hay from the feeder. Goats are notorious hay wasters – once hay hits the floor, they’re not interested anymore, and it becomes bedding. My hope is that this tray will reduce that a little bit.
Stand by for the next Flying T contest – guess the birthdate, #, and genders of each doe’s offspring!
The girls don’t care, as long as the hay tastes the same
1 Dec
They weren’t the first snowflakes we’ve seen this year, but the first real snow arrived today. It’s been falling gently since this morning and we’re at about 3/4″ so far. I know it won’t last through the week, but it’s peaceful and beautiful right now. Here are a few pics from around the farm.
Not quite enough to cover the ground yet.
Boer goats aren’t especially fond of snow.
The ducks don’t seem to mind, however.
Zip is warm in his blanket – he’s hard to keep weight on.
Jasper, on the other hand, has a thick fleece of his own.
5 Sep
Many kids had their first week of school last week, as did ours. However, as homeschoolers, we can be a bit creative in how we spend those days. Last week, from Tuesday through Labor Day, the kids hit science hard… animal science. They did this through their participation in the Hopkinton State Fair in Contoocook, NH. This was the capstone event after a year of hard work with animals, crafts, and other 4H and farm endeavors. All that effort really paid off!
Our 8yo son’s big project this year has been his chickens. If you’ve read our blogs, you know that he runs the egg business on the farm. Since he is too young this year to show animal projects with 4H, he entered his barred rock rooster in the open class… and won best in show! We’ll add pictures later of him holding his rooster and ribbon, but here are a few we’ve already downloaded.
Sister helping to get the rooster washed for the fair.
First Place!
His sisters also won blue ribbons for their duck pairs, with Hana winning “Best pair of ducks” overall.
Friday was the horse show, and Holly was blessed to have her coach, Janine, from Gelinas Farms volunteer to spend the day with her. Janine’s biggest challenge was not helping with getting Zip ready (4H rules state that the kid does all the work), but she really helped out with last-minute coaching tips.
All that coaching made a difference, and Holly ended up winning Grand Champion for her class!
Saturday was the 4H goat show, and the girls really enjoyed doing that for the first time – they earned blue ribbons in several events, with Holly and Ruby edging out Hana and Samy at the end.
Sunday and Monday topped off the long weekend, with pack and obstacle courses, knowledge tests and a quiz bowl, volunteering at the 4H exhibits and food stands, and lots of feeding, cleaning, and talking to the public. The kids had earned enough ribbons to fill their walls (and enough premiums to treat themselves and their animals to some new gear). By the time we pulled out of the fair Monday evening, we were all ready for a rest!
A Joyful Birth